Estimating heart mass from heart volume as measured from post-mortem computed tomography

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version

Version of Record (VoR)

Author(s)
Aitken-Buck, Hamish M
Moore, Matthew
Whalley, Gillian A
Lohner, Larissa
Ondruschka, Benjamin
Coffey, Sean
Tse, Rexson D
Lamberts, Regis R
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2022
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract

Heart mass can be predicted from heart volume as measured from post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT), but with limited accuracy. Although related to heart mass, age, sex, and body dimensions have not been included in previous studies using heart volume to estimate heart mass. This study aimed to determine whether heart mass estimation can be improved when age, sex, and body dimensions are used as well as heart volume. Eighty-seven (24 female) adult post-mortem cases were investigated. Univariable predictors of heart mass were determined by Spearman correlation and simple linear regression. Stepwise linear regression was used to generate heart mass prediction equations. Heart mass estimate performance was tested using median mass comparison, linear regression, and Bland–Altman plots. Median heart mass (P = 0.0008) and heart volume (P = 0.008) were significantly greater in male relative to female cases. Alongside female sex and body surface area (BSA), heart mass was univariably associated with heart volume in all cases (R2 = 0.72) and in male (R2 = 0.70) and female cases (R2 = 0.64) when segregated. In multivariable regression, heart mass was independently associated with age and BSA (R2 adjusted = 0.46–0.54). Addition of heart volume improved multivariable heart mass prediction in the total cohort (R2 adjusted = 0.78), and in male (R2 adjusted = 0.74) and female (R2 adjusted = 0.74) cases. Heart mass estimated from multivariable models incorporating heart volume, age, sex, and BSA was more predictive of actual heart mass (R2 = 0.75–0.79) than models incorporating either age, sex, and BSA only (R2 = 0.48–0.57) or heart volume only (R2 = 0.64–0.73). Heart mass can be more accurately predicted from heart volume measured from PMCT when combined with the classical predictors, age, sex, and BSA.

Journal Title

Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

18

Issue

3

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Other biological sciences

Clinical sciences

Other chemical sciences

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Medicine, Legal

Pathology

Legal Medicine

Persistent link to this record
Citation

Aitken-Buck, HM; Moore, M; Whalley, GA; Lohner, L; Ondruschka, B; Coffey, S; Tse, RD; Lamberts, RR, Estimating heart mass from heart volume as measured from post-mortem computed tomography, Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology, 2022, 18 (3), pp. 333-342

Collections