Users of screening

AAA screening is usually done by physicians (predominantly general practitioners or medical doctors specialising in internal medicine; opportunistic screening practices) or medical technical assistants (population-based systematic screening). {22}

Necessary training

Usually, residents can be trained to perform ultrasound assessments adequately to identify high risk AAA patients. For the technical aspect of AAA screening, the grade and level of training seems to be more important than the type of medical discipline. {23}

Specificity, sensitivity and reproducibility

Variation in intraobserver repeatability and reproducibility of AAA screening by colour-coded duplex-sonography has been identified among studies, which may be in part related to the fact, that investigations were performed by investigators from different medical disciplines of varying grades and levels of training {24}. As poor reproducibility (above the level of 5 mm [which is accepted by the UK and USA AAA screening programmes]) may have negative impact on screening and surveillance, training and quality assurance are important factors of AAA screening.