USC Center for Vascular Care

Vascular Disease Screening

Heart attacks, strokes and abdominal aortic aneurysms don’t usually announce themselves with obvious symptoms. They’re often silent "stalkers":

In the United States, rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm is the cause of 1.2% of male deaths and 0.6% of female deaths in people over the age of 65 and is the thirteenth leading cause of death.
Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States, over one-half million deaths per year. Unfortunately, in 25% of these cases, death is the only symptom.
Each year, strokes, or brain attacks, will strike 500,000 Americans, killing 150,000 and disabling more adults than any other illness.

An aneurysm is a bulging or ballooning at a weak point of an artery, which may be caused by disease, injury or congenital defect in the artery wall. The abdominal aorta is the main source of blood supply to the abdomen and legs. If an abdominal aortic aneurysm ruptures, there is a 50-70% mortality rate.

Due to a variety of risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol levels, diabetes, smoking, and hereditary factors, fatty deposits or plaque may gradually build up within arteries. This process is known as atherosclerosis and can affect any artery in the body. When atherosclerosis significantly affects the coronary arteries, the arteries to the heart muscle, a heart attack can result. In a similar fashion, a brain attack can ensue when the carotid arteries in the neck, which supply blood to the brain, become obstructed.

Hypertension is a condition that reflects high blood pressures that are consistently over 140 mm Hg in systole and over 90 mm Hg in diastole. While hypertension remains the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes, hypertension itself is due to many factors including genetic and environmental factors as well as renovascular disorders. The diagnosis of hypertension is crucial in determining its etiology, treatment and management.