Echocardiographic Assessment of Thoracic Aortic Dilatation

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and
accuracy of 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) transthoracic
echocardiography (2DTTE, 3DTTE) versus multidetector computed
tomography (MDCT) in patients with ascending aortic (AA) dilation.
Materials and Methods: Fifty consecutive patients with AA dilation
were evaluated by 2DTTE, X-plane (XP) 3DTTE, and MDCT.
Aorta diameters were measured at aortic annulus, aortic root (SIN),
sinotubular junction, AA, aortic arch before the prebrachiocephalic
artery (PRE), and before left subclavian artery (INTRA). Leading
edge-to-leading edge (L-L) and inner-to-inner (I-I) measurements
were compared with MDCT data.
Results: Feasibility, quality of imaging, and accuracy was high with
all echocardiographic methods. Specifically for MDCT maximum
SIN diameter, the best correlation and agreement was obtained using
XP maximum diameter at 3DTTE (MDCT: 44.8±7.4mm vs. XP:
44.4±7.4 mm; r=0.975; bias=−0.4 mm). The same was true for AA
maximum diameter at MDCT (MDCT: 46.6±8.1mm vs. XP:
47.5±8.1 mm; r=0.991; bias=0.1mm). For aortic arch the best
correlation and agreement with MDCT were as follows: 2DTTE L-L
diameter for arch PRE (MDCT: 37.9±5.3mm vs. TTE:
36.6±4.5 mm; r=0.927; bias=−0.9 mm) and MDCT minimum
diameter with XP minimum diameter for arch INTRA (MDCT:
28.2±5.0mm vs. TTE 28.8±4.7 mm; r=0.939; bias=−0.3 mm).
Conclusion: In patients with aortic dilatation or aneurysm, new
techniques (mainly 2D-3D probes allowing XP views) facilitate
accuracy of aortic measurements at different sites of the vessel and
allow standardization of analysis to better compare with MDCT.