Gender, age, and body surface area are the major determinants of ascending aorta dimensions in subjects with apparently normal echocardiograms.
BACKGROUND
Limited data have been published on the normal size of the ascending aorta (AA) measured using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE).


METHODS
AA diameters were measured in 1799 patients with normal cardiac findings on TTE and compared with the diameters of the sinus of Valsalva (SoV).


RESULTS
Mean diameters in men and women, respectively, were 3.4 and 3.1 cm for the SoV and 3.2 and 3.0 cm for the AA. The sizes of the SoV and the AA showed strong correlations with age, age squared, and body surface area. The 5th and 95th percentile curves for the SoV and AA showed faster growth of diameters in early adulthood compared with old age. The dimensions of the SoV were larger than those of the AA (mean differences, 0.19 cm in men and 0.08 cm in women), and the difference between the SoV and AA was negatively correlated with age.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study stress the importance of indexing dimensions of the SoV and the AA to age and body surface area separately for men and women.
Cardiovascular Center, Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. patric.biaggi@uhn.on.ca
Patric
P
Biaggi
Felix
F
Matthews
Julia
J
Braun
Valentin
V
Rousson
Philipp A
PA
Kaufmann
Rolf
R
Jenni
D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001011:Aorta / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D001830:Body Surface Area; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D014463:Ultrasonography; D055815:Young Adult