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Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Stoate calls for introduction of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms
Dr Stoate, who is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Men’s Health, said:

“Burst triple As kill about 6000 men a year in the UK, mostly older men aged 65 or more. They are usually symptomless until they burst and in most cases you die without knowing what happened. Only 20% of people survive if an aneurysm bursts. The few who survive the major emergency operation that is then required will then spend a long period in a hospital’s intensive care unit. If an aneurysm is picked up during a routine scan on the other hand, a relatively straightforward operation to repair the aorta can be performed, which has a 94% success rate.”

“Recent research suggests that Triple A deaths could be halved if screening were to be introduced nationwide. As well as being a very accurate and reliable test, it is also relatively inexpensive: a UK wide programme would only cost between £6-10 million a year to operate. Furthermore, the test itself very easy to carry out and once someone has been screened, the vast majority will be clear for life – they will not need to be checked again.”

“A Triple A screening programme has existed in Gloucestershire for the last fifteen years and has helped to save dozens of lives, as well as giving peace of mind to thousands of other men and their families. In my view the case for introducing a NHS screening programme nationwide is overwhelming and I would like Ministers to consider bringing one in as soon as possible.”

The MP has been campaigning for Triple A screening for a number of years, but it was the sudden death of Bob Carson, a leading member of Dartford Labour Party and a candidate in the last Dartford Borough and Kent County Council elections, from a Triple A last month that has prompted him to renew his call for a national screening programme.

“Bob was a great character who gave an enormous amount of his time and energy, not just to the Labour Party but to a wide range of other causes and local organisations. His death is a huge loss to this community yet it could have been avoided had there been a screening programme here in Kent as there is in Gloucestershire. It is because of avoidable deaths like these that we need to give urgent consideration to the introduction of a screening programme right across the country.”

An abdominal Aortic Aneurysm is a bubble type swelling in the wall of the body’s main blood vessel as it passes through the abdomen.

Those most at risk of an aneurysm are older men, especially those who smoke or those who have high blood pressure or who have conditions like angina. Triple As are extremely rare in women and younger men which is why it is not thought cost-effective to screen either.

The test for a Triple A is a ultrasound scan, the same process as is used to examine pregnant women. A single professional with a portable scanner would be able to screen approximately 10 people an hour.
 
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© 2008 Dr Howard Stoate - Member of Parliament for Dartford
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