Hospitals serving the county have been chosen to lead a new national drive to treat abdom-inal aortic aneurysms and hope it will save 100 lives a year.
Most sufferers have no symptoms. If the condition is un- detected the aorta, the body's largest artery, can rupture, causing death in 90 per cent of cases.
Abdominal aortic aneurysms affect about 7.5 per cent of men aged 65 and over. The condition weakens and enlarges the artery and is six to seven times more common in men than in women.
The University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust screens 40 per cent of 65-year-old men in Leicester, Leicesteshire and Rutland.
The trust's success in treating sufferers meant it was chosen among the first group of six trusts to receive extra funding from March next year to screen more men in the age group.
The screening is carried out in GP surgeries using ultrasound scanning machines.
Mr Akhram Nasim, consultant vascular surgeon at Leicester's hospitals, said: "It will save hundreds of lives.
"By increasing the take-up we will increase the amount of preventative surgery we can do and reduce the number of patients who have to undergo an emergency repair.
"In the past this condition has only been picked up incidentally or when it has ruptured.
"Using an ultrasound scan we measure the maximum diameter of the main blood vessel in the abdomen, if it is 3cm or more it is considered an aneurysm."
Patients with an aneurysm can be monitored, or if at an advanced stage undergo surgery to repair it.
Keyhole surgery can also reduce recovery times.
Rutland county councillor Hugh Rees (Con), cabinet portfolio holder for health, welcomed the decision to step up the screening. The retired GP said: "This is to be warmly welcomed. You are going to save many lives this way."
Leicester hospitals carried out 136 abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs last year, 36 of which were picked up through screening.