Echocardiographic reference values for aortic root size: The Framingham Heart Study

The objectives of this study were to develop sex-, age-, and body size-specific nomograms and partition values for upper and lower limits of M-mode echocardiographic aortic root measurements derived from a large population-based cohort. The study sample consisted of 1433 male and 1816 female participants in the Framingham Heart Study and Framingham Offspring Study who were normotensive and free of clinically apparent heart disease at the baseline examination. Aortic root measurements were obtained by M-mode echocardiography by a leading-edge to leading-edge technique. The relations of age and measures of body size with aortic root dimensions were evaluated with sex-specific correlations and multiple stepwise linear regression analyses. Age was the most important determinant of aortic root size in both men and women in the multivariable regression models. Models with age and body surface area yielded R² values of 0.214 in men and 0.222 in women. Models with age and height yielded lower R² values of 0.136 in men and 0.181 in women. Thus aortic root dimensions vary widely with the age, sex, and body size of individuals. Sex-specific reference nomograms of aortic root dimensions in relation to age and body size (body surface area or height) are presented to facilitate the detection of abnormalities of aortic root size.