Study of cardiomegaly using chest x-ray

A chest x-ray is the most commonly used modality for detecting cardiomegaly, and the cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) has been used as an important tool for estimating the heart size. The main aims of the present study were to determine the distribution of cardiomegaly in normal adults in Saudi Arabia and to evaluate the correlation between the presence of cardiomegaly and age. Data was collected from King Abdulaziz Hospital, Jeddah. A conventional x-ray machine was used for obtaining the x-rays, and CTR was calculated for each patient. Our study included 59 participants (24 females, 40.7%; 35 males, 59.3%) who were examined by posteroanterior (PA) chest x-rays; their age range was 15–79 years. Descriptive analyze were performed using SPSS. The results of our study showed that 38 (64.4%) patients were normal, while 21 (35.6%) patients had cardiomegaly. Of the patients with cardiomegaly, 14 were males (66.7%) and 7 were females (33.3%). The age distribution of these patients was as follows: 15–25 years, 2 patients; 26–36 years, 3 patients; 37–47 years, 5 patients; 48–58 years, 5 patients; 59–69 years, 4 patients; and 59–69 years, 2 patients. The results revealed that cardiomegaly occurs more commonly in males than in females and is particularly observed in the middle-aged group.