Cardiothoracic ratio of non - hypertensive patients at Jos University teaching hospital (JUTH)

A Shugaba¹*, M Umar¹, A   Asunugwo¹, C. Uzokwe¹, A Rabiu², R Matthew³ and S Mohammed⁴

¹Department of Human Anatomy, University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

²Department of Human Physiology, University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

³Pathfinder International, Asokoro, Abuja, Nigeria.

⁴Department of Radiology, Maitama General Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author E-mail: alishugaba@yahoo.com

Accepted 27 July, 2012

Abstract

Radiography of the heart and great vessels is the commonest examination performed as routine investigation of cardiovascular system; it identifies abnormalities associated with the size, shape and contours of the heart. The aim of the study is to determine the mean cardiothoracic ratio among non- hypertensive patients at Jos university teaching hospital (JUTH).A retrospective assessment of 126 chest radiographs of non- hypertensive patients performed at radiology unit of university of Jos teaching hospital from June 2009 to July 2010 using the simple random sampling method.Of the 126 subjects 73 were males and 53 were females within an age range of 18- 86years. The mean cardiothoracic ratio (C.T.R) was 0.462. From the study 126 patients (73 males and 53 females) had their CTR measured and there was no significant difference between the CTR of males and females p 0.115 >0.05. The mean heart diameter is 13.3849, mean thoracic diameter 28.9357 and mean CTR 0.4622   

Keywords: Cardiothoracic ratio, non - hypertensive patients and Jos University teaching hospital (JUTH)