Revisiting the Clinical Interpretation of CT-Measured Pulmonary Artery-to-Aorta Ratio—The Rotterdam Study

The pulmonary artery (PA) diameter-to-aorta ratio (PA:A) ratio is a novel marker in cardiovascular imaging for detecting pulmonary hypertension. However, we question the effect of the varying aorta diameter on the ratio, which complicates the interpretation of the PA:A ratio. Investigate the variability of the PA:A ratio by examining the correlation between PA:A ratio and aorta diameter and by comparing the associations of the PA diameter, aorta diameters, and PA:A ratio. We included 2197 participants from the Rotterdam Study who underwent non-contrast multidetector computed tomography to measure the PA and aorta diameters. Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated between the PA:A ratio and aorta diameter. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to compare the determinants of the individual diameters and PA:A ratio. We found a statistically significant correlation between the PA:A ratio and aorta diameter (r = −0.38, p