Family Members of Patients with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms are at Increased Risk for Aneurysms: Analysis of 618 Probands and their Families from the Liege AAA Family Study.

BACKGROUND: The objectives were to answer the following questions using a well-characterized population in Liege, Belgium: 1) what percentage of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) patients have a positive family history for AAA, 2) what is the prevalence of AAAs among relatives of AAA patients; and 3) do familial and sporadic AAA cases differ in clinical characteristics. METHODS AND RESULTS: Unrelated AAA patients diagnosed at the Cardiovascular Surgery Department, University Hospital of Liege, Belgium, between 1999 and 2012 were invited to the study. A detailed family history was obtained in interviews and recorded using Progeny software. In the initial interview 62 (10%) of the 618 AAA patients reported a positive family history for AAA. We divided the 618 patients into two study groups: Group I: 296 AAA patients (268; 91% males) were followed up with computerized tomography combined with positron emission tomography, and Group II: 322 AAA patients (295; 92% males) whose families were invited to ultrasonography screening. Ultrasonography screening identified 24 new AAAs among 186 relatives (>/= 50 years) of 144 families yielding a prevalence of 13%. The highest prevalence (25%) was found among brothers. By combining the number of AAAs found by ultrasonography screening with those diagnosed previously the observed lifetime prevalence of AAA was estimated to be 32% in brothers. The familial AAA cases were more likely to have a ruptured AAA than the sporadic cases (8% vs. 2.4%; P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm previously found high prevalence of AAA among brothers, support genetic contribution to AAA pathogenesis and provide rationale for targeted screening of relatives of AAA patients.