[Evaluation of normal thoracic and abdominal aortic diameters through computerized tomography]

We measured the widest anteroposterior diameters of the thoracic and abdominal aortas of 350 patients without cardiovascular diseases who had undergone computerized tomography of the thorax and/or abdomen. After classifying them according to gender and age group, we calculated the mean diameters and standard deviations, and determined the ratios between the ascendant and descendent thoracic aortic diameters, and of the abdominal aorta, concluding that: both the thoracic and abdominal aortic diameters are reduced from their proximal to their distal portions; the body surface influences the size of the aorta; vessel diameters was observed to gradually increase with age; men were found to have larger diameters than age matched women; the ratio between the ascending and descending aortic diameters varies according to gender and age; the relations between abdominal aortic diameters measured at the level of renal hila and cephalad to the bifurcation areindepend from gender and age; but, the relation between those measured at the level of the superior mesenteric artery and cephalad to the bifurcation are linked to gender, but not to age.