Key result
Age-related thoracic narrowing causes the cardiothoracic ratio to overestimate longitudinal heart size.
Why the study?
Changes in heart size with aging in older men and women were not well characterized longitudinally, including the accuracy of cardiothoracic ratio and predictive models.
Cohort
Clinicians should interpret cardiothoracic ratio changes cautiously in older adults; leaves open whether alternative metrics better track longitudinal heart size.
Transverse cardiac diameter and transverse thoracic diameter were measured in a longitudinal study of older men and women at the original examination and after five years. The cardiothoracic ratio overestimated 5-year changes in heart size, because of significant decreases with age in transverse thoracic diameter. A regression equation to predict transverse cardiac diameter from age and weight had been previously computed from the data obtained at the initial examination. This was a satisfactory predictor of recorded 5-year changes except in women of 70 years and over at entry to the study in whom the predicted change was significantly larger than the recorded change. This had resulted from the death during the 5 years of women in that age group with larger transverse cardiac diameters.
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Lauder et al. (1976) reported a cohort. Aging was evaluated on 5-year changes in transverse cardiac diameter and transverse thoracic diameter. Aging over 5 years led to significant decreases in transverse thoracic diameter, causing the cardiothoracic ratio to overestimate longitudinal changes in heart size in older adults.
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