Key result
Cardiothoracic ratio derived from chest radiographs correlates weakly with true chamber size assessed by cardiac MRI and has weak discriminatory power for detecting cardiac enlargement.
Why the study?
Cardiothoracic ratio on chest radiographs is widely used to estimate heart size, but whether a universal cut-off value of 50% reliably indicates cardiac enlargement compared with cardiac MRI parameters remained unclear.
Does cardiothoracic ratio derived from chest radiographs accurately predict real heart size compared to cardiac magnetic resonance imaging?
Cross-Sectional (n=309)
No
Does cardiothoracic ratio derived from chest radiographs accurately predict real heart size compared to cardiac magnetic resonance imaging?
Effect estimate: AUC 0.704 (95% CI 0.646-0.761)
Cardiothoracic ratio from chest radiographs has weak discriminatory power for true heart chamber enlargement compared to cardiac MRI, suggesting intermediate values (45-55%) should not guide clinical decisions.
Authors
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CTR should not guide decisions on enlargement; leaves open prospective outcome validation.
Šimkus et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Suspected or known cardiac disease (n=309). Cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) vs. Cardiac MRI was evaluated on Diagnostic accuracy of CTR for detecting increased left ventricular indexed end-diastolic volume (LVEDVi) (AUC 0.704, 95% CI 0.646-0.761). Cardiothoracic ratio derived from chest radiographs correlates weakly with true chamber size assessed by cardiac MRI and has weak discriminatory power for detecting cardiac enlargement.
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