Thoracic Aorta Diameter Calculation by Artificial Intelligence Can Predict the Degree of Arterial Stiffness

Figures

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  Figure 1. Schematic diagram of ADs calculated by AI and nine consecutive levels of positions measured. (A) Pseudocolor image of a thoracic aorta segmentation in a case with nine levels positions and nine levels cross-sections with yellow lines representing the longest diameter; (B) Schematic diagram of the sagittal plane of thoracic aorta, the green line is the centerline, yellow line and red line are the positions of nine levels; (C) The cross-section of MD is shown in (B), where the yellow line represents the longest and shortest diameters, and the final diameter is the square root of the product of the long diameter and the short diameter.

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  Figure 2. The distribution differences of the AD at various levels among the groups of non-AS, pre-AS, and AS. SV, aortic sinuses of valsalva; STJ, sinotubular junction; Mas mid ascending aorta (midpoint in length between STJ and Par); par, proximal aortic arch (aorta at the origin of the innominate artery); Mar, mid aortic arch (between left common carotid and subclavian arteries); PD, proximal descending thoracic aorta (begins at the isthmus, ~2 cm distal to left subclavian artery); MD, mid descending aorta (midpoint in length between PD and DP); DP, aorta at the diaphragm (2 cm above the celiac axis origin); Ab, abdominal aorta at the celiac axis origin. *It represents there was a statistical difference between any two of the three groups; **P < 0.01; ****P < 0.001.

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  Figure 3. The scatter plots and simple linear fitting curves of M.CAVI with ADs by different age groups. All scatter plots were drawn with M.CAVI as the y-axis, and AD at SV (A), STJ (B), Mas (C), Par (D), Mar (E), PD (F), MD (G), DP (H), Ab (I) as the x-axis separately. Abbreviations are the same as Figure 2.

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  Figure 4. The receiver operating curve (ROC) of AD at each level for predicting the risk of AS, and the risk of Pre-AS and AS. (A) Identification of the risk of AS (i.e., M.CAVI ≥ 9) by the AD. (B) Identification of the risk of pre-AS and AS (i.e., M.CAVI ≥ 8) by the AD. Abbreviations are the same as Figure 2.