فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: A number of earlier studies have attempted to establish the validity of various radiological parameters for the assessment of cardiac enlargement, but these were not fully quantitative as echocardiographic measurements. Objectives: In our study, we aimed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of certain radiological parameters including the cardiothoracic ratio (CTR), cardiac area (CA) and cardiac volume (CV), derived from posteroanterior (PA) and lateral chest X-rays (CXR) in patients with impaired left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) suffering from dyspnea by comparing them with echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular (LV) dimensions and LVEF. Results: There was no significant relationship between CTR and LVEF, but CA and CV showed a strong correlation with LVEF (P < 0.001 and P < 0.00001, respectively). LV dimensions correlated better with CV than with CA (P < 0.00001 and P < 0.0001, respectively). According to the analysis of ROC curves, the best cut-off value for CV for the diagnosis of systolic heart failure was 825 mL. Conclusion: The CV value correlated more closely with low LVEF and more accurately indicated an enlarged heart than CA or CTR. This may be due to the fact that an anteroposterior measurement of heart size is included in the former but not the latter two measurements. These study results may help quantify left heart enlargement with greater accuracy than may be obtained from standard CXR.