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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
06:08
Ultrasound Imaging of the Thoracic and Abdominal Aorta in Mice to Determine Aneurysm Dimensions
Published on: March 8, 2019
Aortic Geometric Atlas: Centile-Based Reference Charts and Pathological Signatures Across the Adult Lifespan
Cameron A Beeche1,2,3, Hamed Tavolinejad2,4, Zhirui Li5
1Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Medrxiv : the Preprint Server for Health Sciences
|July 17, 2026
Summary
We developed an automated pipeline to analyze thoracic aortic geometry, creating an Aortic Geometric Atlas. This atlas uses aortic geometric phenotypes (AGPs) to predict cardiovascular disease risk beyond traditional diameter measurements.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Imaging and Radiology
- Medical Informatics
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- The aorta is a critical site for cardiovascular disease, but current computed tomography (CT) assessments are limited to manual diameter measurements.
- This limits the early detection and comprehensive understanding of aortic conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an automated pipeline, the Aortic Geometry Toolkit (AGT), for comprehensive thoracic aortic geometric characterization.
- To create the Aortic Geometric Atlas, a population-scale reference for aortic geometry using extracted aortic geometric phenotypes (AGPs).
- To investigate the prognostic value of AGPs for incident cardiovascular disease.
Main Methods:
- Developed the Aortic Geometry Toolkit (AGT), an automated pipeline to extract 38 AGPs from CT scans.
- Applied AGT to 140,319 CT studies from 62,366 participants to construct sex-specific, centile-based reference ranges.
- Conducted phenome-wide time-to-event analysis using 155 phecodes to identify prognostic associations of AGPs.
Main Results:
- Constructed comprehensive, sex-specific reference ranges for 38 AGPs across nine decades of adult life.
- Identified 861 prognostic associations between AGPs and incident diseases across 155 phecodes.
- Demonstrated that non-caliber geometric features provide predictive value beyond aortic diameter for cardiovascular risk.
Conclusions:
- The Aortic Geometric Atlas offers a population-scale reference for individualized thoracic aortic assessment.
- AGPs serve as early, subclinical markers for incident cardiovascular disease.
- The AGT pipeline enables advanced characterization of aortic geometry for improved risk stratification.
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