Catching an abdominal aortic aneu-rysm before it bursts—before it kills—is no simple task. Most often, these arterial blisters are silent. It is not until they burst and hemorrhaging has begun that they can be clearly heard. And at that point, it is often too late.

Early detection of abdominal aortic aneurysms—and other silent vascular diseases—is what the USC University Hospital Vascular Screening Program was designed to do. The Program is part of the hospital’s emphasis on preventing and catching these conditions as early as possible—allowing physicians to move toward interventions and treatments that criss-cross traditional medical disciplines and are tailored to each patient’s needs. This attention to vascular health takes on greater weight because of the sheer numbers of people impacted by vascular disease.

“One of every two Americans die of cardiovascular disease,” says Howard N. Hodis, M.D., associate professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the Keck School. “Whether you’re a man or a woman, there is no comparison to any other disease in how many people die from this disease. Period.”

Unlike other medical testing programs that focus solely on heart health, the Vascular Screening Program looks at conditions in the blood vessels that contribute to critical vascular problems. For instance, because of a variety of factors (such as the amount and type of fat in a diet, cholesterol levels, smoking and heredity) fatty deposits or plaques may gradually build up in arteries—a process known as atherosclerosis, which can affect any artery in the body.

When arteries leading to the heart muscle are clogged through atherosclerosis, a heart attack may result. When carotid arteries in the neck are closed, blocking blood flow to the brain, a stroke results. Bits of plaque can also break off and flow to the brain, causing stroke.

The Vascular Program forms part of the first line of defense against a variety of traffic jams in the body’s transportation system. “The screening looks for three silent killers,” notes Douglas B. Hood, M.D., assistant professor of surgery. “The first is abdominal aortic aneurysm [a weakness or ballooning in the walls of the aorta]. Then it looks for carotid artery disease, which is associated with stroke. The third thing is coronary disease affecting the heart.”

“We evaluate patients with no symptoms,” adds Susana Perese, technical director of the Noninvasive Vascular Laboratory, where the screening program is administered. If patients have symptoms such as chest pressure or facial numbness, they should go directly to their doctor or call 911, she suggests.

Most of the patients screened by the program get a clean bill of health or learn they have a minor build-up of plaque in their arteries, and can work with physicians to reduce their risk of heart attack or stroke through diet, drugs and exercise. But between two and five of every 100 patients are shown to have a blockage or aortic aneurysm that requires some sort of intervention—treatments including surgery as well as techniques that use tiny balloons, coils, drills or lasers to clear the debris from the body’s blood vessels. These are the individuals Perese puts in touch with specialists immediately.

To screen for abdominal aortic aneurysms, the Vascular Screening Program employs a simple five-minute noninvasive imaging test that utilizes colorflow duplex ultrasound technology. This is accomplished from outside the patient’s body, so no needles, catheters or probes are needed. The tests are easy and painless and take less than an hour to complete.

Since the program’s inception in 1995, this technology has been used to screen thousands of individuals—and to detect a significant number of problems that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. After a screening, patients receive a two-page report in one to three weeks.

“We recently screened a 72-year-old physician who learned about our program in an article that appeared in the USC Health magazine,” Perese recounts. “He had thought he felt a pulsing in his abdomen, but his own personal doctor didn’t think it was a problem. However, since the physician’s father had died at age 55 of coronary artery disease and his mother had experienced a heart attack—and he himself had high cholesterol and was a previous smoker—he decided to double check and scheduled an appointment with our Noninvasive Vascular Laboratory.

“Sure enough, we found an aneu-rysm,” she adds. “Dr. Weaver scheduled the physician for a CT scan, which is the gold standard for the evaluation and measurement of abdominal aortic aneurysms. He subsequently underwent surgery and is recovering well.”

Perese has little doubt that the USC University Hospital Vascular Screening Program saves lives. She has similar stories involving the coronary artery disease and stroke screenings.