Editor’s Pick: The diameter of the thoracic aorta is a biomarker of heart attack and other adverse cardiovascular events in women and men, according to a new study.
The aorta is a large artery that carries oxygenated blood to the heart and other parts of the body. The part that passes through the chest cavity, called the thoracic aorta, divides into the ascending aorta, which starts from the left ventricle, and the descending aorta, which is located at the back of the chest cavity.
The thoracic aorta increases with age, but changes in vessel size and structure, so-called vascular remodeling, have implications for hemodynamics (cardiovascular function and circulation) basic indicators) and systemicity of biological processes that are also related to cardiovascular disease.
Study senior author Maryam Kavousi, MD, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam Medical Center, University of Rotterdam, Netherlands, said: “Although thoracic aorta enlargement is is a common finding in clinical practice, but at the population level, there are few longitudinal data on long-term outcomes for major cardiovascular disease outcomes.”
Kavousi, MD, and he colleagues assessed these associations in 2,178 participants in the population-based Rotterdam study. Participants underwent multi-detector CT scans between 2003 and 2006 and were followed for an average of 9 years. The diameter of the thoracic aorta was measured with body mass index (BMI) as an index.
In both men and women, the greater the diameter of the thoracic aorta with increased and decreased bmi index, the greater the risk of adverse cardiovascular events, such as stroke and death.
“Our results suggest that image-based assessment of thoracic aortic diameter can be considered an indicator of future cardiovascular disease risk,” said Dr. Kavousi. Larger arterial ascending diameters were associated with a 33% higher risk of cardiovascular death. Remodeling of the aging aorta appears to be different between women and men, with women deteriorating more rapidly. “Age has greater adverse effects on aortic health and structure in women than in men.”
Study results suggest cardiovascular risk assessment in asymptomatic women and men Correlation with thoracic aorta size may lead to effective, sex-specific prevention strategies.
Dr. Kavousi noted, “Since aortic diameter is significantly associated with body size, the use of aortic diameter as an anthropometric measure may improve the prognostic value of cardiovascular outcomes.”
The thoracic aorta size assessment could easily be added to existing screening methods, the researchers say. The cardiac CT scans used in this study are already commonly used to assess coronary artery calcification. Thoracic aortic diameter can also be measured routinely, for example as part of CT lung cancer screening.
The current study is based on a single CT assessment of a large group of general population participants and followed up to 9 years for cardiovascular event rate and mortality . The researchers recently performed CT-based thoracic aorta assessment in these participants for a median of 14 years.
This provides an exciting and unique opportunity to study risk characteristics and patterns of thoracic aortic growth in the general population by gender,” said Dr. Kavousi.
Source: Radiological Society of North America
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