About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffYour doctor may recommend you have an abdominal ultrasound if you're at risk of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. A one-time abdominal aortic ultrasound screening is recommended for men between the ages of 65 and 75 who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetimes.
Routine screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm isn't recommended for women, and it's unclear if men who have never smoked may benefit from an abdominal ultrasound to screen for an aortic aneurysm.
Risk factors for abdominal aortic aneurysm include:
- Being male
- Age of 60 years or older
- A history of atherosclerosis — a thickening of the walls of your arteries
- A family history of abdominal aortic aneurysm
- Smoking
- High blood pressure (a systolic pressure of 140 to 159 millimeters of mercury, or mm Hg, and a diastolic pressure of 90 to 99 mm Hg)
- An aneurysm in one of your other arteries
- Chronic lung disease
Other possible reasons you may have an abdominal ultrasound
Your doctor may also recommend that you have an abdominal ultrasound if he or she thinks you have a problem with another organ in your abdomen, including:
- Kidneys
- Liver
- Gallbladder
- Pancreas
- Spleen
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm. Society for Vascular Surgery. http://www.vascularweb.org/patients/NorthPoint/Abdominal_Aortic_Aneurysm.html. Accessed April 28, 2010.
- Abdominal ultrasound. Radiological Society of North America and American College of Radiology. http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=abdominus. Accessed April 28, 2010.
- Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm: Recommendation statement. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf05/aaascr/aaars.pdf. Accessed April 28, 2010.
- Health care guideline: Preventive services for adults. Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement. http://www.icsi.org/preventive_services_for_adults/preventive_services_for_adults_4.html. Accessed April 28, 2010.
- Thompson SG, et al. Screening men for abdominal aortic aneurysm: 10 year mortality and cost effectiveness results from the randomised Multicentre Aneurysm Screening Study. British Medical Journal. 2009;338:2307.
- United Kingdom EVAR Investigators. Endovascular versus open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm. New England Journal of Medicine. In press. Accessed April 28, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on