Assessment of Cardiothoracic Ratio among Apparently Healthy Patients in Selected Diagnostic Centres/Hospitals and Their Anthropometric Parameters

Introduction: The heart has the role of pumping the oxygenated blood to other parts of the body and the de-oxygenated blood to the lungs. This study assessed the cardiothoracic ratio among apparently healthy patients in selected diagnostic centres and hospitals and determined its relationship with selected anthropometric parameters, specifically age and gender.

Methodology: The study adopted a retrospective cross-sectional study design which involved 4,342 participants who underwent chest radiography in four diagnostic centres: University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Lily Hospital Limited, University of Benin Health Centre, and Edo Specialist Hospital. Data collected included cardiothoracic ratio which was measured from postero-anterior chest radiographs alongside age, gender. Data was summarized using descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics including Spearman’s correlation, point-biserial correlation and independent samples t-test, were used to determine relationships and variations between variables at a significance level of p < 0.05.

Results: The results showed that females constituted majority (56.1%) of the study population, with a total average age of 33.37 ± 14.51 years. The overall average cardiothoracic ratio was 46.17 ± 4.03%, ranging from 36.1% to 58.8%. Most participants (86.7%) had normal CTR values (≤50%), while 13.3% had enlarged CTR (>50%). Comparison by gender showed that females had a fairly higher mean CTR (46.51 ± 4.27) than males (45.74 ± 3.67), and this difference was statistically significant (t = −6.385, p < 0.05), although the effect size was small (d = −0.19). Spearman’s correlation test analysis revealed a weak but statistically significant positive relationship between cardiothoracic ratio and age (ρ = 0.298, p < 0.05). There was also a very weak but significant relationship between CTR and gender as shown by the Point-biserial correlation test (ρ = 0.094, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: The study concluded that age and gender contribute to variations in CTR among apparently healthy individuals and provides baseline values useful for clinical interpretation of chest radiographs.

Keywords: Cardiothoracic Ratio, Anthropometric Parameters, Gender, Chest Radiographs.