CONTRIBUTION OF CT ANGIOS IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF SUBRENAL ABDOMINAL AORTA ANEURYSM AT THE LUXEMBOURG MOTHER-CHILD HOSPITAL CENTER

Objective: Our study aimed to study the value of CT angiography in the diagnosis of subrenal abdominal aortic aneurysm at the Mother-Child University Hospital Center Le Luxembourg

Methodology : This was a retrospective, descriptive and analytical study carried out over a period of three years (from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021) in the radiology departments of CHME Mère et Enfant Le Luxembourg. It concerned all patients who had an angio-CT scan in the radiology department of the CHU-ME Le Luxembourg in whom a subrenal abdominal aortic aneurysm was diagnosed. Excluded from our study were aneurysms of the thoracic aorta and vessels of the neck as well as the limbs.

Results : We retained 22 cases of AAA meeting our inclusion criteria. The male gender was the majority (66.7%) with a sex ratio (M/F) of 1.5. The most represented age group was those over 50 with 66.7%. Hypertension was the most represented risk factor with a rate of 33.3%. Abdominal pain was the most frequent functional sign with 77.77%. More than 66.7% of our patients had an abdominal mass. The majority of our patients had a saccular type of aneurysm (67%). The average anteroposterior diameter of the AAA was 56 mm. The average transverse diameter was 63 mm. The average length of the aneurysm was 77 mm. All our patients had heterogeneous aneurysm contents with mural thrombus. The edge of the aneurysm was irregular with loss of parallelism in all our patients. More than half (55.6%) of our patients had aortic calcifications. Only one of our patients presented with fissure syndrome. 33.3% of our patients had the sign of extension to the renal arteries. The majority of our patients had visceral branch patency with a rate of 88.9%. The biological assessment was dominated by anemia with a rate of 44.4%. The echocardium was pathological in 11.1%.

Conclusion: Abdominal aortic aneurysms are becoming more and more common. More than 90% of abdominal aortic aneurysms develop at the expense of the infrarenal aorta. The most common vascular risk factors are hypertension and smoking. Aneurysms are generally asymptomatic, making their clinical diagnosis difficult. CT angiography remains the complementary examination of choice in the diagnosis of thoraco-abdominal arterial lesions.