Detecting Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms in First Degree Relatives (Adult Offsprings) to AAA Patients (DAAAD)
Condition: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
MeSH terms: Aneurysm; Aortic Aneurysm; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The 8-12 fold higher risk for sisters and brothers of patients with Abdominal Aortic
      Aneurysms (AAA) to develop AAA compared to persons in the population is well known in the
      scientific community. Recently the value of the screening program for siblings has been
      analyzed and is shown to be highly cost-efficient, similar to the population based screening
      of 65-year old men for AAA. Most importantly detection of siblings also adresses and includes
      women at risk. The adult offsprings to AAA patient would hypothetically bear the same risk of
      AAA as siblings. This has never been evaluated scientifically due to the practical
      difficulties in tracking the offspring and inviting them to screening at an age when they are
      at risk of AAA-disease. In Sweden, the unique multigeneration registry exists which could
      support such detection, with the possibility to track adult offspring to patients, and
      investigate the true contemporary prevalence in them.

      The DAAAD project aims at investigating the prevalence in adult offspring parallel to
      developing a model for such a selective screening program
    

Detailed description: 
      This project will evaluate four questions

        1. Feasibility of study design; can we evaluate the prevalence of AAA by inviting and
           detecting risk groups in national registries ?

        2. Point prevalence of AAA in a riskgroup of adult offspring to AAA patients as compared to
           a matched control group

        3. Quality of Life in risk groups: measuring HADS, EQ-5D and questionnaire on heredity,
           including their awareness on their risk for AAA

        4. Cost-effectiveness of such a national program based on prevalence and EQ-5D

      This program will evaluate the risk for AAA in adult offspring and also evaluate a highly
      probable effective registry-based detection route. This could be more cost-efficient than any
      other AAA screening program, since the prevalence presumably is very high, and the
      registry-based route could be cheaper than nurse-based detection or incidental screening. The
      ultimate benefit of this program will be a crude reduction of sudden deaths from AAA for
      adult offspring to AAA patients, and this will be specifically impressive for the female
      relatives that are never subjected to any AAA-screening in our country.
    

Intervention name(s): Ultrasound and questionnaire
Intervention type(s): Diagnostic Test
Intervention description(s): One invititation to identified adult offspring to have an ultrasound to detect an AAA. The prevalence in this Group (strata for sex) will be compared to a random selected matched Control group
Observational model: Case-Control
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Random selection of Adult offspring to registered AAA parent (adult offspring) and adult
        offspring not having a AAA parent (Controls)