Figure 1

An axial thoracic image from early postmortem MDCT in a 62-year-old man with cardiac arrest demonstrates the ascending thoracic aorta (black arrowhead) with a high-attenuation wall (70 HU) and a normal minor/major- axial diameter ratio (0.9). An elliptical descending thoracic aorta (black arrow) with a minor/major-axial diameter ratio of 0.78 had a non-high attenuating wall measuring 58HU. No high-attenuated sedimentation was diagnosed in either great vessel. The presternal subcutaneous fat depth (white arrow) is 3.6 mm. Each line in the descending thoracic aorta indicates the minor- and major-axial diameter, respectively. The upper half of the lumen of the ascending thoracic aorta is manually traced for measuring the attenuation.