Prognostic Association Supports Indexing Size Measures in Echocardiography by Body Surface Area

Abstract

Body surface area (BSA) is the most commonly used metric for body size indexation of echocardiographic measures, but its use in patients who are underweight or obese is questioned (body mass index [BMI]<18.5 kg/m2 or ≥30 kg/m2, respectively). We aim to use survival analysis to identify an optimal body size indexation metric for echocardiographic measures that would be a better predictor of survival than BSA regardless of BMI.