Thoracic Paraspinal Line in Hypertension and Mitral Valwlar Disease

THORACIC PARASPINAL LINE IN HYPERTENSION AND MITRAL VALWLAR DISEASE. S.K. Gupta and V. Mohan. Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu university, Varanasi, India. Thoracic paraspinal line produced by the posteromedial border of the left lung casts a linear shadow running along the left side of thoracic spine from the level of D4 to Dll or D12 vertebra medial to the shadow of descending thoracic aorta. Thoracic paraspinal line (T.P.L.) is altered in a variety of disease processes affecting the spine, ribs, pleura and mediastinum. In this study 100 cases of mitral valvular disease and 50 cases of hypertension are analyzed for changes in the thoracic paraspinal line. In all cases in addition to other clinical and roentgen studies, dorsal spine X-ray in the antero-posterior projection was obtained. It was found that in 80% cases of mitral valvular disease, T.P.L. and aortic shadow showed lateral deviation. Size of mediastinum and type of left atria1 enlargement possibly determines the presence of these changes in the majority and absence of these changes in a small number of these cases. These changes though additional but are only subsidiary sign of left atria1 enlargement. In hypertension the degree of lateral deviation of descending aorta and T.P.L. was found to be directly proportional to the degree of hypertension. These changes are useful in evaluation of hypertension only in young patients below the age of forty.