Comparison of Aortic Annulus Size by Transesophageal Echocardiography and Computed Tomography Angiography With Direct Surgical Measurement

This study sought to compare the accuracy of 2-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and computed tomography angiography (CTA) for noninvasive aortic annular sizing as required for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Direct intraoperative (OR) sizing is the gold standard for aortic annular measurement in surgical aortic valve replacement. Unlike surgical aortic valve replacement, TAVI requires noninvasive assessment of aortic annular dimensions for determining the size of prosthesis to be implanted and controversy exists regarding the best imaging technique for TAVI sizing. Preoperative CTA and OR TEE images of the aortic annulus in 227 patients who underwent proximal aortic surgery with OR annular sizing at the Duke University Medical Center were reviewed. Both imaging techniques were compared with direct OR measurements of aortic annulus diameter using metric sizers as the gold standard. CTA overestimated aortic annulus diameter in 72.2% of cases, with 46.3% >1 TAVI valve-size (>3 mm) overestimations, whereas TEE underestimated aortic annulus diameter in 51.1% of cases, with 16.7% >1 valve-size underestimations. Combining both techniques improved the estimation of aortic annular size. In conclusion, there are limitations to current imaging techniques for noninvasive determination of aortic annular dimensions compared with direct OR sizing. Undersizing by TEE and oversizing by CTA are common and may be related to differences in methods for sizing an elliptical structure. Combining measurements from both techniques would decrease the false exclusion rate for TAVI eligibility because of size mismatch.