Department of Radiology, University of Ghana school of Medicine and Dentistry.
Department of Radiography, University of Ghana School of Biomedical &Allied Health Sciences.
Ethiop J Health Sci. 2021 May;31(3):561-572. doi: 10.4314/ejhs.v31i3.13.
The cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) is a radiographic parameter commonly used in assessing the size of the heart. This study evaluated the gender and age-based differences in the average cardiothoracic ratios, and transverse cardiac diameters (TCD) of adults in Ghana.
Plain chest radiography reports of 2004 patients (without known chest related diseases) generated by two radiologists with at least 15 years' experience from July 2016 to June 2020 were retrospectively analyzed for this study. The CTR for each radiograph was calculated using the formula CTR=(TCD÷TTD)×100, where TCD and TTD represent transverse cardiac diameters and transverse thoracic diameters, respectively. Data were analyzed with the statistical package for social sciences version 23. The independent t-test and One-way Analysis of Variance tests were used in the analyses.
A total of 2004 patients' chest x-rays were used in the analyses. The ages of the patients ranged from 20-86 years old with a mean of 39.4±14.04 years. The mean CTR for males was 46.6 ± 3.7% while that of females was 47.7±3.7%. The difference in the overall CTR among the gender groupings was statistically significant (p = 0.001). There were statistically significant differences between the gender categories among patients in the following age groups: 30-39 (p=0.046), 40-49 (p=0.001), 50-59 (p=0.001) and 60-69 (p=0.001).
The study reveals there are significant gender and age-related differences in cardiac size parameters obtained from routine, frontal chest radiographs. These differences, if considered, may result in early and appropriate treatment of cardiac pathology in some age groups.
心胸比（CTR）是一种常用于评估心脏大小的放射学参数。本研究评估了加纳成年人基于性别和年龄的平均心胸比和心脏横径（TCD）的差异。
回顾性分析了 2016 年 7 月至 2020 年 6 月期间两位至少具有 15 年经验的放射科医生生成的 2004 例（无已知与胸部相关疾病）患者的常规胸部 X 光片报告。使用公式 CTR=（TCD÷TTD）×100 计算每个 X 光片的 CTR，其中 TCD 和 TTD 分别代表心脏横径和胸廓横径。使用社会科学统计软件包版本 23 进行数据分析。在分析中使用了独立 t 检验和单因素方差分析检验。
共分析了 2004 例患者的胸部 X 光片。患者年龄从 20 岁到 86 岁不等，平均年龄为 39.4±14.04 岁。男性的平均 CTR 为 46.6±3.7%，而女性的平均 CTR 为 47.7±3.7%。性别分组之间的总体 CTR 差异具有统计学意义（p=0.001）。在以下年龄组中，性别类别之间存在统计学显著差异：30-39 岁（p=0.046）、40-49 岁（p=0.001）、50-59 岁（p=0.001）和 60-69 岁（p=0.001）。
该研究表明，从常规的正面胸部 X 光片中获得的心脏大小参数存在显著的性别和年龄相关差异。如果考虑这些差异，可能会导致某些年龄组的心脏病理学的早期和适当治疗。
