Research guides FDA action on common medical device

The largest blood vessel in the body, the abdominal aorta, sends freshly oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. Each year, about 200,000 adults in the United States are diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), a swelling and/or potentially fatal rupture of this crucial blood vessel that occurs when the vessels’ walls weaken. Age, high blood pressure and smoking are among the risk factors.