Question: How are aortic aneurysms detected before rupturing if they give off no symptoms?

Laura Haworth answered on 6 Mar 2016:

There is a national screening programme for over 65 year old males now in place that uses ultrasound to look at their aorta and measure its’ size. If it is bigger than it should then these men are followed up on a yearly/ 3 monthly basis. Once the aorta gets to greater than 5.5cm the surgeons can operate to stop the aorta rupturing. Aortic aneurysms can also be an incidental finding by other routine imaging i.e CT, ultrasound scans or MRI that a patient may have when investigating problems.