Skip to main content
Download PDF
  • Research note
  • Open access
  • Published:

Association between ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan and number of involved vessels in coronary angiography

BMC Research Notes volume 14, Article number: 49 (2021) Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity, therefore, recognizing its severity and related factors is important. This study was performed to evaluate the association between ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan and number of involved vessels in coronary angiography. In this observational cross-sectional comparative study, 110 patients who were under coronary angiography in Firoozgar Hospital in 2017 were enrolled, and the association between ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in their chest CT scan and number of involved vessels in angiography were assessed.

Results

In this study, number of involved vessels in angiography was related to PA/Ao ratio (P = 0.001) and further vessels were accompanied with higher ratio. It may be concluded that, a higher ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan is related to higher number of involved vessels in coronary angiography, and it may have a predictive role.

Introduction

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is recognized as the first cause of the mortality worldwide and also as the leading cause of morbidity and high economic costs [1,2,3]. It has shown an increasing trend in many countries including Iran with a raise percentage between 25 and 40 percent [4,5,6,7]. Also, there are multiple risk factors for coronary artery disease [8,9,10,11,12,13,14], which can even increase the severity of coronary artery disease [15,16,17,18,19,20]. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of disease can lead to decrease in mortality and mobidity [21]. Sudden cardiac death is considered as the main cause of the cardiac deaths presenting as early symptom [20]. The prevalence rate of coronary artery disease and angina pectoris among Iranian population is 21.8 and 10.7 percent, respectively [19]. Conventional diagnostic methods, especially in the patients with chest pain include the folowings: angiography (gold standard), echocardiography, stress echocardiography, scintigraphy, computed tomography angiography (CT-angiography), cardiac MRI, nuclear scan, and exercise test [22]. There are few non-invasive diagnostic methods applicable in asymptomatic patients. Pulmonary artery diameter in an imaging index and the association with aortic diameter in imaging are markers of pulmonary hypertension [4, 5]. Pulmonary hypertension is related to heart failure with ejection fraction preservation, morbidity, and mortality [6, 7], especially in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients [8, 9]. An association has been oberved between pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary artery to ascending aorta diameter in these patients in previously performed studies [10, 11], as a prognostic factor in cardiovascular diseases [12, 16]. However, the diagnostic role is not considered yet. Since majority of diagnostic methods for CAD are invasive; in this study, the association between ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan and number of involved vessels in angiography was determined.

Main text

Materials and methods

In this observational cross-sectional descriptive-comparative study, 110 consecutive patients who were under coronary angiography (with maximal time interval of three-month with chest CT scan in the same center) were enrolled for cardiovascular symptoms in Firoozgar Hospital, Tehran, Iran, in 2017. The study was approved by local ethical committee. Also, the collected data were recorded in checklists including demographic, clinical, and imaging variables.

All CT scans were performed without contrast and with Siemens SOMATOM Scope 16-Slice CT Scanner device at Firoozgar Hospital, Tehran, Iran.almost all ct scans use a range of 110–130 kVp depending on patient body habitus and mAs/ref adjusted proportionally between 70–80. Total dose length product (DLP) of procedure measured 180 mGycm on average.

The results of chest CT scan were reported by two expert radiologists, and the mean measurements (as shown in Fig. 1) were reported. The association between the ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in their chest CT scan and number of involved vessels in angiography were assessed.

Fig. 1
figure 1

measurement is performed at the level of pulmonary artery bifurcation

Full size image

Data analysis among 110 subjects was done using SPSS version 19.0 software. The utilized tests for performing comparisons in this study were Chi-Square and Analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the P values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

Results

In this study, the mean (standard deviation) age was 65.4 (12.8) years old. Also, there were 63 male subjects (57.3%). Majority of the subjects had 2-vessel and 3-vessel involvements (Additional file 1).

Mean (standard deviation) pulmonary artery diameter, ascending aorta, and the related ratio was 30 (7.0), 32 (4.7), and 0.94 (0.16), respectively. Older age was related (P = 0.004) to further involved vessels in coronary angiography (Table 1). There was no significant association between the number of involved vessels in coronary angiography and gender (P = 0.161) (Additional file 2).

Table 1 Comparative number of involved coronary vessels by age
Full size table

As shown in Table 2, aorta diameter was not related to the number of involved vessels in coronary angiography (P = 0.514). However, higher pulmonary artery diameter (P = 0.026) and the calculated ratio (P = 0.001) were related to higher number of involved vessels in coronary angiography in the patients.

Table 2 Association between involved vessels in coronary angiography and chest CT scan measurements
Full size table

Discussion

In this study, the alternative diagnostic role of ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan was assessed as a non-invasive method, which showed a good diagnostic value beside a previously approved prognostic role in this era. This matter can also help in early diagnosis of CAD in the patients undergone chest CT scan for any other non-cardiac reason, and subsequently the mortality and morbidity in the communities by CAD can be decreased. In this study, it was found that, a higher ratio is related to further involved vessels in coronary angiography.

We introduce the PA/Ao ratio as a non-invasive alternative diagnostic and screening method in patients who undergone CT scan for other reasons, nevertheless it is not applicable as an independent diagnostic tool such as an ECG or exercise test yet and more studies should be designed to evaluate the diagnostic power, sensitivity and specificity of this test compared to the other non-invasive methods mentioned.

A cohort study by Well et al. [11] demonstrated that, a higher PA/Ao ratio is related to the increased mortality in COPD patients, as an independent factor, especially in severe cases. However, our cross-sectional design in the current study could not assess the outcomes in the patients. Kavakus et al. [13] reported that, PA/Ao ratio is a marker of pulmonary hypertension in the patients with Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF), and is also related to disease's outcome. In our study, same association was indirectly seen with the severity of involvement in coronary angiography.

Campton et al. [15] reported that, PA/Ao ratio is normally higher than 1 during childhood period. However, as shown in our study, higher measurements in adults were abnormal and considered as an index for severity of disease.

Antlanger et al. [16] reported PA/Ao ratio as a prognostic marker that is related to the severity of disease, and is also associated with some risk factors such as diabetes, atrial fibrillation, right-sided heart failure, Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and low Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), especially in women. Nevertheless, in our study, gender was not related to the severity of involvement in the subjects. Also, it has never been studied as an independent alternative diagnostic method for coronary heart disease screening, which this study proves.

According to a mentioned study by Well et al. The PA/Ao ratio is an independent mortality risk factor in COPD patients. This ratio has also been correlated with coronary heart disease risk factors according to antlanger et al. study. One can hypothesis increased mortality rate of COPD patients which was attributed to PA/Ao ratio may also be due to coronary artery involvement, in order to find a more certain result more study focusing on COPD patients is required.

Nasrullah et al. [17] reported that, ascending aorta diameter in children is routinely higher than adults, and it should be remembered in the studies with wide ranges. Also, Truong et al. [18] reported that, pulmonary artery diameter is more in male subjects compared to female cases. In our study, only age was related to a higher severity of involvement; however, there was observed no effect for gender.

It may be concluded that, a higher ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan is related to higher number of involved vessels in coronary angiography, which may have a predictive role even in the subjects who have incidental findings in chest CT scan due to other causes.

Limitation

Further studies with larger sample sizes and multi-center sampling, and also by considering possible confounding role for cardiovascular risk factors are required to attain more definite results in this era.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

CAD:

Coronary artery disease

COPD:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

CT-angiography:

Computed tomography angiography

DLP:

Dose length product

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

HFPEF:

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction

BNP:

Brain natriuretic peptide

GFR:

Glomerular filtration rate

PA:

Pulmonary artery

SVD:

Single vessel disease

2VD:

2 Vesel disease

3VD:

Three vessel disease

Std:

Standard

NVD:

No vessel disease

References

  1. Truelsen T, Mähönen M, Tolonen H, Asplund K, Bonita R, Vanuzzo D. Trends in stroke and coronary heart disease in the WHO MONICA Project. Stroke. 2003;34(6):1346–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Goyal A, Kahlon P, Jain D, Soni RK, Gulati R, Chhabra ST, et al. Trend in prevalence of coronary artery disease and risk factors over two decades in rural Punjab. Heart Asia. 2017;9(2):e010938.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sadeghi M, Pourmand K, Sanei H, Heidari R, Talaei M. Which major atherosclerosis risk factors represents the extent of coronary artery disease? ARYA Atherosclerosis. 2012;7:63–9.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chan AL, Juarez MM, Shelton DK, MacDonald T, Li CS, Lin TC, et al. Novel computed tomographic chest metrics to detect pulmonary hypertension. BMC Med Imaging. 2011;11:7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kandaswamy E, Zuo L. Recent advances in treatment of coronary artery disease: role of science and technology. Int J Mol Sci. 2018;19(2):424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Vachiery JL, Adir Y, Barbera JA, Champion H, Coghlan JG, Cottin V, et al. Pulmonary hypertension due to left heart diseases. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013;62(25 Suppl):D100–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Mascherbauer J, Marzluf BA, Tufaro C, Pfaffenberger S, Graf A, Wexberg P, et al. Cardiac magnetic resonance postcontrast T1 time is associated with outcome in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2013;6(6):1056–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. McGhan R, Radcliff T, Fish R, Sutherland ER, Welsh C, Make B. Predictors of rehospitalization and death after a severe exacerbation of COPD. Chest. 2007;132(6):1748–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cuttica MJ, Kalhan R, Shlobin OA, Ahmad S, Gladwin M, Machado RF, et al. Categorization and impact of pulmonary hypertension in patients with advanced COPD. Respir Med. 2010;104(12):1877–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mahammedi A, Oshmyansky A, Hassoun PM, Thiemann DR, Siegelman SS. Pulmonary artery measurements in pulmonary hypertension: the role of computed tomography. J Thorac Imaging. 2013;28(2):96–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Wells JM, Washko GR, Han MK, Abbas N, Nath H, Mamary AJ, et al. Pulmonary arterial enlargement and acute exacerbations of COPD. N Engl J Med. 2012;367(10):913–21.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Kasper D, Fauci A, Hauser S, Longo D, Jameson J, Loscalzo J. Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. New York: Mcgraw-hill; 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Karakus G, Kammerlander AA, Aschauer S, Marzluf BA, Zotter-Tufaro C, Bachmann A, et al. Pulmonary artery to aorta ratio for the detection of pulmonary hypertension: cardiovascular magnetic resonance and invasive hemodynamics in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2015;17:79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Iyer AS, Wells JM, Vishin S, Bhatt SP, Wille KM, Dransfield MT. CT scan-measured pulmonary artery to aorta ratio and echocardiography for detecting pulmonary hypertension in severe COPD. Chest. 2014;145(4):824–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Compton GL, Florence J, MacDonald C, Yoo SJ, Humpl T, Manson D. Main pulmonary artery-to-ascending aorta diameter ratio in healthy children on MDCT. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2015;205(6):1322–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Antlanger M, Aschauer S, Kammerlander AA, Duca F, Saemann MD, Bonderman D, et al. Impact of systemic volume status on cardiac magnetic resonance T1 mapping. Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):5572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Nasrullah F, Mahmood R, Hameedi S. Pulmonary artery and aortic diameters; measurement with calculation of main pulmonary artery to ascending aorta ratio in healthy children, using CT as diagnostic modality. Prof Med J. 2017. https://doi.org/10.17957/TPMJ/17.4041.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Truong QA, Massaro JM, Rogers IS, Mahabadi AA, Kriegel MF, Fox CS, et al. Reference values for normal pulmonary artery dimensions by noncontrast cardiac computed tomography: the Framingham Heart Study. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2012;5(1):147–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Hadaegh F, Harati H, Ghanbarian A, Azizi F. Prevalence of coronary heart disease among Tehran adults: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. East Mediterr Health J. 2009;15(1):157–66.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Sara JD, Eleid MF, Gulati R, Holmes DR Jr. Sudden cardiac death from the perspective of coronary artery disease. Mayo Clin Proc. 2014;89(12):1685–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Bullock-Palmer RP. Prevention, detection and management of coronary artery disease in minority females. Ethn Dis. 2015;25(4):499–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Gibbons RJ, Chatterjee K, Daley J, Douglas JS, Fihn SD, Gardin JM, et al. ACC/AHA/ACP-ASIM guidelines for the management of patients with chronic stable angina: executive summary and recommendations. A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Committee on Management of Patients with Chronic Stable Angina). Circulation. 1999;99(21):2829–48.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

There is no acknowledgment for the present study.

Funding

There is no funding for the present study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiology Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Iman Mohseni & Afshin Shiri

  2. Cardiology Department, Shahid-Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Simindokht Mojahedin

Authors
  1. Iman Mohseni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Afshin Shiri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Simindokht Mojahedin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

IM and AS: designed the study, performing the experiment, participate in writing; SM: statistical analysis, data collection. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Afshin Shiri.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study is approvd by ethics committee of Iran Univrsity of Medical Sciences (IR.IUMS.FMD.REC.1397.102). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

Not Applicable.

Competing interests

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Additional file 1.

Number of involved vessels in angiography.

Additional file 2.

Comparative number of involved coronary vessels by gender

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mohseni, I., Shiri, A. & Mojahedin, S. Association between ratio for diameters of pulmonary artery to ascending aorta bifurcation in chest CT scan and number of involved vessels in coronary angiography. BMC Res Notes 14, 49 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05459-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05459-1

Keywords

BMC Research Notes

ISSN: 1756-0500

Contact us