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World J Radiol. Feb 28, 2016; 8(2): 148-158
Published online Feb 28, 2016. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i2.148
Advances in determining abdominal aortic aneurysm size and growth
Nikolaos Kontopodis, Stella Lioudaki, Dimitrios Pantidis, George Papadopoulos, Efstratios Georgakarakos, Christos V Ioannou
Nikolaos Kontopodis, Stella Lioudaki, Dimitrios Pantidis, George Papadopoulos, Christos V Ioannou, Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, University of Crete Medical School, 71100 Heraklion, Greece
Efstratios Georgakarakos, Department of Vascular Surgery, Democritus University of Thrace, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece
Author contributions: Kontopodis N conceived the subject and wrote the article; Lioudaki S collected data and critically revised paper; Pantidis D collected data and summarized evidence in Tables; Papadopoulos G collected data and designed images; Georgakarakos E and Ioannou CV had the overall responsibility, revised manuscript and gave final approval for submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Christos V Ioannou, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Head of Vascular Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery, University of Crete Medical School, PO Box 1352, 71110 Heraklion, Greece. ioannou@med.uoc.gr
Telephone: +30-281-3402379 Fax: +30-281-0375365
Received: June 6, 2015
Peer-review started: June 7, 2015
First decision: August 16, 2015
Revised: September 6, 2015
Accepted: December 17, 2015
Article in press: December 18, 2015
Published online: February 28, 2016
Processing time: 264 Days and 17.9 Hours
Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a common pathology in the aging population of the developed world which carries a significant mortality in excess of 80% in case of rupture. Aneurysmal disease probably represents the only surgical condition in which size is such a critical determinant of the need for intervention and therefore the ability to accurately and reproducibly record aneurysm size and growth over time is of outmost importance. In the same time that imaging techniques may be limited by intra- and inter-observer variability and there may be inconsistencies due to different modalities [ultrasound, computed tomography (CT)], rapid technologic advancement have taken aortic imaging to the next level. Digital imaging, multi-detector scanners, thin slice CT and most- importantly the ability to perform 3-dimensional reconstruction and image post-processing have currently become widely available rendering most of the imaging modalities used in the past out of date. The aim of the current article is to report on various imaging methods and current state of the art techniques used to record aneurysm size and growth. Moreover we aim to emphasize on the future research directions and report on techniques which probably will be widely used and incorporated in clinical practice in the near future.

Keywords: Abdominal aortic aneurysm; Size; Growth; Maximum diameter; Volume; Ultrasound; Computed tomography

Core tip: Abdominal aortic aneurysms probably represent the only surgical condition in which size is such a critical determinant of the need for intervention. Recent advances in imaging techniques have raised new possibilities in medical imaging regarding aneurysmal disease making size recordings more accurate and reproducible than ever. This review article summarizes available techniques, reports state of the art imaging modalities and discusses future perspectives regarding aortic aneurysms’ imaging and decision making.