title: Aortic arch morphometry in living humans.
abstract: Anatomical features of the aortic arch such as its steepness, the take-off angles and the distances between its supra-aortic branches can influence the feasibility and difficulty of interventional and/or surgical maneuvers. These anatomical characteristics were assessed by means of 3D multiplanar reconstruction of thoracic angio-computed tomography scans of 92 living patients (79 males, 13 females, mean age 69.4 ± 9.9 years) carried out for various indications (gross pathology of the thoracic aorta excluded). There was a significant variation of all measured parameters between the subjects - a standard aortic arch (i.e. with all measured parameters within 2 SD) does not seem to exist. There were no significant differences between genders but some of the parameters correlated significantly to age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Cardiocentro Ticino, Lugano, Switzerland. demertzis@cardiocentro.org
authors.forename: Stefanos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Demertzis
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hurni
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stalder
authors.forename: Brigitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gahl
authors.forename: Gudrun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: Jos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van den Berg
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods