Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography
Volume 2, Issue 5 , Pages 298-308 , September 2008

Assessment of the thoracic aorta by multidetector computed tomography: Age- and sex-specific reference values in adults without evident cardiovascular disease

  • Fay Y. Lin, MD, MSc

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Richard B. Devereux, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Mary J. Roman, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Joyce Meng, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Veronica M. Jow, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Avrum Jacobs, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Jonathan W. Weinsaft, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
  • ,
  • Leslee J. Shaw, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, G, USA
  • ,
  • Daniel S. Berman, MD

      Affiliations

    • Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • ,
  • Amanda Gilmore, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Health Benchmarks Incorporated, Woodland Hills, CA, USA
  • ,
  • Tracy Q. Callister, MD

      Affiliations

    • Tennessee Heart and Vascular Institute, Hendersonville, TN, USA
  • ,
  • James K. Min, MD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, 520 E 70th Street, K415, New York, NY 10021 USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author

Received 3 April 2008 ,Accepted 2 August 2008.

References 

  1. Roman MJ, Devereux RB, Niles NW, Hochreiter C, Kligfield P, Sato N, et al. Aortic root dilatation as a cause of isolated, severe aortic regurgitation (Prevalence, clinical and echocardiographic patterns, and relation to left ventricular hypertrophy and function). Ann Intern Med. 1987;106:800–807
  2. Roman MJ, Devereux RB, Kramer-Fox R, O'Loughlin J. Two-dimensional echocardiographic aortic root dimensions in normal children and adults. Am J Cardiol. 1989;64:507–512
  3. ASE Chamber Quantification Writing Group. Recommendations for chamber quantification: a report from the American Society of Echocardiography's guidelines and standards committee and the chamber quantification writing group, developed in conjunction with the European Association of Echocardiography, a branch of the European Society of Cardiology. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2005;18:1440–1463
  4. Min JK, Wann S. Indications for coronary and cardiac computed tomographic angiography. Cardiol Rev. 2007;15:87–96
  5. Min JK, Shaw LJ, Devereux RB, Okin PM, Weinsaft JW, Russo DJ, et al. Prognostic Value of Multidetector Coronary CT angiography for prediction of all-cause mortality. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;50:1661–1670
  6. Mclelland RL, Chung H, Detrano R, Post W, Kronmal R. Distribution of coronary artery calcium by race, gender, and age: results from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Circulation. 2006;16:2341–2349
  7. Cheong B, Flamm SD. Use of electrocardiographic gating in computed tomography angiography of the ascending thoracic aorta. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;49:1751
  8. Kaplan S, Aranow WS, Lai H, DeLuca AJ, Weiss MB, Dilmanian H, et al. Prevalence of an increased ascending and descending thoracic aorta diameter diagnosed by multislice cardiac computed tomography in men versus women and in persons aged 23 to 50 years, 51 to 65 years, 66 to 80 years, and 81 to 88 years. Am J Cardiol. 2007;100:1598–1599
  9. Vasan RS, Larson MG, Levy D. Determinants of echocardiographic aortic root size (The Framingham Heart Study). Circulation. 1995;91:734–740
  10. Pearce WH, Slaughter MS, LeMaire S, Salyapongse AN, Feinglass J, McCarthy WJ, et al. Aortic diameter as a function of age, gender, and body surface area. Surgery. 1993;114:691–697
  11. Jondeau G, Boutouyrie P, Lacolley P, Laloux B, Dubourg O, Burdarias JP, et al. Central pulse pressure is a major determinant of ascending aorta dilation in Marfan syndrome. Circulation. 1999;99:2677–2681
  12. Vasan RS, Larson MG, Benjamin EJ, Levy D. Echocardiographic reference values for aortic root size: the Framingham Heart Study. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 1995;8:793–800
  13. Agmon Y, Khandheria NK, Meissner I, Schwartz GL, Sicks JD, Fought AJ, et al. Is aortic dilatation an atherosclerosis-related process? (Clinical, laboratory and transesophageal echocardiographic correlates of thoracic aortic dimensions in the population with implications for thoracic aortic aneurysm formation). J Am Coll Cardiol. 2003;42:1076–1083
  14. Cohen GI, White M, Sochowski RA, Klein AL, Bridge PD, Stewart WJ, et al. Reference values for normal transesophageal echocardiographic measurements. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 1995;8:221–230
  15. Mohiaddin R, Schoser K, Amanuma M, Burman ED, Longmore DB. MR imaging of age-related dimensional changes of thoracic aorta. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1990;14:748–752
  16. Aronberg DJ, Glazer HS, Madsen K, Sagel SS. Normal thoracic aortic diameters by computed tomography. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1984;8:247–250
  17. Poutanen T, Tikanoja T, Sairanen H, Jokinen E. Normal aortic dimensions and flow in 168 children and young adults. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. 2003;23:224–229
  18. Garcier JM, Petitcolin V, Filaire M, Mofid R, Azarnouch K, Ravel A, et al. Normal diameter of the thoracic aorta in adults: a magnetic resonance imaging study. Surg Radiol Anat. 2003;25:322–329
  19. Burman ED, Pennel DJ, Kilner PJ. Measurement of aortic root size by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging. Royal Brompton Hospital and NHLI, Imperial College, London. Unpublished data available at http://ubimon.doc.ic.ac.uk/isc/public/HPosters06_100–150/paper150.pdfAccessed August 6, 2008
  20. Lang RM, Cholley BP, Korcarz C, Marcus RH, Shroff SG. Measurement of regional elastic properties of the human aorta (A new application of transesophageal echocardiography with automated border detection and calibrated subclavian pulse tracings). Circulation. 1994;90:1875–1882
  21. Muhs BE, Vincken KL, van Prehn J, Stone MK, Bartels LW, Prokop M, et al. Dynamic cine-CT angiography for the evaluation of the thoracic aorta; insight in dynamic changes with implications for thoracic endograft treatment. Eur J Vasc Endovasc Surg. 2006;32:532–536
  22. Nollen GJ, Groenink M, Tijssen JG, Van Der Wall EE, Mulder BJ. Aortic stiffness and diameter predict progressive aortic dilatation in patients with Marfan syndrome. Eur Heart J. 2004;25:1146–1152
  23. Hundley WG, Kitzman DW, Morgan TM, Hamilton CA, Darty SN, Stewart KP, et al. Cardiac cycle-dependent changes in aortic area and distensibility are reduced in older patients with isolated diastolic heart failure and correlate with exercise intolerance. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2001;38:796–802
  24. Quanadli SD, Hajjam EL, Mesurolle B, Lavisse L, Jourdan O, Randoux B, et al. Motion artifacts of the aorta simulating aortic dissection on spiral CT. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1999;23:1–6
  25. Duvernoy O, Coulden R, Ytterberg C. Aortic motion: a potential pitfall in CT imaging of dissection in the ascending aorta. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1995;19:569–572
  26. Ko SF, Hsieh MJ, Chen MC, Ng SH, Fang FM, Huang CC, et al. Effects of heart rate on motion artifacts of the aorta on non-ECG-assisted 0.5-sec thoracic MDCT. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2005;184:1225–1230
  27. Tamborini G, Galli CA, Maltagliati A, Andreini D, Pontone G, Quaglia C, et al. Comparison of feasibility and accuracy of transthoracic echocardiography versus computed tomography in patients with known ascending aortic aneurysm. Am J Cardiol. 2006;98:966–969
  28. Dinsmore RE, Liberthson RR, Wismer GL, Miller SW, Liu P, Thompson R, et al : Magnetic resonance imaging of thoracic aortic aneurysms: comparison with other imaging methods. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1986;146:309–314
  29. Jaffer FA, O'Donnell CJ, Larson MG, Chan SK, Kissinger KV, Kupka MJ, et al. Age and sex distribution of subclinical aortic atherosclerosis: a magnetic resonance imaging examination of the Framingham Heart Study. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2002;22:849–854
  30. Li AE, Kamel I, Rando F, Anderson M, Kumbasar B, Lima JA, et al. Using MRI to assess aortic wall thickness in the multiethnic study of atherosclerosis: distribution by race, sex, and age. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2004;182:593–597
  31. Devereux RB, Lutas EM, Casale PN, Kligfield P, Eisenberg RR, Hammond IW, et al. Standardization of M-mode echocardiographic left ventricular anatomic measurements. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1984;4:1222–1230

 Conflict of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

PII: S1934-5925(08)00553-4

doi: 10.1016/j.jcct.2008.08.002

Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography
Volume 2, Issue 5 , Pages 298-308 , September 2008