WEST LAFAYETTE — Researchers are exploring the usefulness of ultrasound imaging to study dangerous abdominal aortic aneurysms, a bulging of the aorta that is usually fatal when it ruptures and for which there is no effective medical treatment.
Abdominal aortic aneurysms are the 13th leading cause of death in the United States, killing about 15,000 annually.
“Most of the time people don't even know it's there, but if it does rupture they have internal bleeding from the largest artery in the body,” said Craig Goergen, an assistant professor in Purdue University‘s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.
The researchers are able to track small changes in the vessel as the aneurysm forms. Ultrasound imaging allows for visualization of the arterial layers that often separate from each other while the vessel grows.
