Prevalence of rare visceral aneurysms on 92,833 CAT scans (2005-2021)

Studies on the prevalence of rare visceral aneurysms are still scarce and the few studies that have focused on these aneurysms present prevalence rates in groups of patients with visceral aneurysms, but little is known about their prevalence in the general population.

To assess the prevalence of rare visceral aneurysms on CAT scans performed for diagnosis and follow-up of patients with other vascular pathologies.

This cross-sectional study began by accessing all reports from CAT scans performed between January 2005 and July 2021 at a private hospital of excellence located in the city of São Paulo. A software program for pre-indexed reports was used to search the Radiological Information System (RIS) database to identify reports of patients with intra-abdominal aneurysms.

CAT scan reports from 92,883 patients were accessed. Of these, 2,597 (2.795%) showed intra-abdominal aneurysms, 937 (1.063%) of which were visceral, including 158 (0.171%) rare visceral aneurysms, which were more frequent among male patients and in the following segments: celiac trunk (0.098%), superior mesenteric (0.033%), left gastric (0.010%), pancreatic-duodenal (0.009%), and gastroduodenal arteries (0.005%) and the pancreatic arch (0.004%). Lower prevalence was found in other segments. Additional findings revealed concomitance of rare visceral aneurysms with other intra-abdominal aneurysms ranging from 11.11% to 66.67%.

The prevalence of rare visceral aneurysms in a large population undergoing CAT scan was 0.171%, with greater involvement in male patients.