Diagnosis of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta

The usefulness and limitations of non-invasive diagnostic techniques, such as computerized tomography, radionuclide aortography and ultrasonography, were evaluated for the diagnosis of thoracic aortic aneurysms. The non-invasive studies were performed on 44 patients with aneurysm of the thoracic aorta, and these non-invasive findings were compared with those of the conventional contrast aortography, the surgery or the autopsy. Those non-invasive studies were very useful screening tests for aneurysms of the thoracic aorta because of the high diagnostic accuracy. In addition to this, both computerized tomography and ultrasonography were also useful as clinical follow-up techniques because of good correlation between measurement of aneurysm size by these methods and actual measurement at surgery. Computerized tomographic studies even with contrast enhancement could accurately make the diagnosis of dissecting aneurysm only in approximately one-third in our series. Ultrasonographic studies had little value in diagnosing aneurysms of the aortic arch and the descending thoracic aorta because of the influence of the lung, sternum and ribs. (author)