Vascular pedicle width on chest radiograph as a measure of volume overload: meta-analysis

Vascular pedicle width (VPW), a measurement obtained from a chest radiograph (CR), is thought to be an indicator of circulating blood volume. To date there are only a handful of studies that demonstrate a correlation between high VPW and volume overload, each utilizing different VPW values and CR techniques. Our objective was to determine a mean VPW measurement from erect and supine CRs and to determine whether VPW correlates with volume overload.

MEDLINE database, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched electronically for relevant articles. References from the original and review publications selected electronically were manually searched for additional relevant articles. Two investigators independently reviewed relevant articles for inclusion criteria and data extraction. Mean VPW measurements from both supine and erect CRs and their correlation with volume overload were calculated.

Data from 8 studies with a total of 363 subjects were included, resulting in mean VPW measurements of 71 mm (95% confidence interval [CI] 64.9-77.3) and 62 mm (95% CI 49.3-75.1) for supine and erect CRs, respectively. The correlation coefficients for volume overload and VPW were 0.81 (95% CI 0.74-0.86) for both CR techniques and 0.81 (95% CI 0.72-0.87) for supine CR and 0.80 (95% CI 0.69-0.87) for erect CR, respectively.

There is a clinical and statistical correlation between VPW and volume overload. VPW may be used to evaluate the volume status of a patient regardless of the CR technique used.