A Prospective Study on Point-of-Care Focused Cardiac Ultrasound in Assessing for Thoracic Aortic Dimensions, Dilation, and Aneurysm in Correlation With CT Angiogram in Suspected Cases of Pathology

Nonspecific chest pain is frequently encountered in the emergency department. Accounting for over 13,000 deaths annually, aortic aneurysmal disease is a potential cause of chest pain.There are multiple diagnostic imaging modalities in practice to interrogate the thoracic aorta, with the most common being computed tomographic angiography (CTA), trans-thoracic echocardiography (TTE) and trans-esophageal echocardiography (TEE), each with its own advantages and limitations. In the ED setting, point-of-care (POC) focused cardiac ultrasound (FOCUS) is increasingly being used as an adjunct to the emergency physician's (EP) workup of undifferentiated chest pain. Based on prior retrospective data FOCUS and CTA appear to have good agreement. This studies aims to confirm these findings through prospective evaluation Specific Aims Aim 1: To prospectively compare Point of Care (POC) Focused Cardiac Ultrasound (FOCUS) to thoracic computed tomographic angiography (CTA) in the measurement of ascending aortic dimensions. Maximal diameter measurements of the ascending thoracic aorta by FOCUS will be compared to CTA. Bland Altman plots with 95% limits of agreement will be used to determine clinical and statistical significance. Hypothesis: 95% limits of agreement between FOCUS and CTA will be within +/- 5 mm. Aim 2: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of Point-of-Care Focused Cardiac Ultrasound for the detection of thoracic aortic dilation and aneurysm with computed tomographic angiography as the reference standard Sensitivity, Specificity and Accuracy of FOCUS will be computed with CTA as the reference standard.