Abstract
Areas of cardiac shadow on routine chest X-ray films were measured in 54 chronic hemodialysis patients and two-dimensional cardiothoracic rations, (2°CTRS) defined as the square root of the cardiac shadow divided by the maximal thoracic width, were calculated.
The patients were divided into 2 groups: patients in the A group (22 cases) had dry weights which had apparently been set at high levels, while patients in the B group (32 cases) constituted all of those excluded from the A group.
The mean 2°CTR level in the A group (49.3±3.92%) was significantly (p<0.0001) higher than that in the B group (44.2±3.63%).
The ratio (95.5%) of the A group patients whose 2°CTR level was abnormally high, was significantly (p<0.0001) higher than that (86.4%) of the A group patients whose cardio-thoracic rate (CTR) was abnormally high, suggesting that 2°CTR is more useful than CTR for estimating dry weight (DW).
