Comparison of Body Surface Area and Optimized Multivariate Allometric Model Approaches in Correcting...

Aortic dimensions differ between ethnic groups. To correct the ethnicity-related differences in aortic dimensions, Ao-a, Ao-s, and Ao-asc were measured by echocardiography in a total of 1820 Chinese and Italian healthy adults. The correction equations based on an optimized multivariate allometric model (OMAM) were constructed and tested, and the correction efficacies of the two approaches of body surface area (BSA) and OMAM were compared. The aortic dimensions were found to vary with physiological variables and ethnicities (all p < 0.05). Correction using BSA eliminated neither the differences in aortic dimensions across study populations nor the residual correlations with physiological variables (all p < 0.05). In contrast, indexation with OMAM equations eliminated both the ethnicity-related differences and residual correlations (all |r| < 0.20 and p > 0.05). The success rate of the BSA approach was 0%, while that of the OMAM approach was 100% for correcting all aortic dimensions in Chinese, Italian, and combined populations, respectively. In conclusion, the OMAM approach is superior to BSA approach in correcting the variations in aortic dimensions. Using OMAM as a novel indexing tool may facilitate establishing universal cutoffs between normal and abnormal aortic dimensions among different ethnic populations in the world.