The authors tried to determine the validity of sixteen well-known signs indicating an acute traumatic rup ture of the aorta on plain chest radio graphs of 22 patients. Angiograph ically 11 of the patients had a tear at the aortic isthmus. It turned out that seven of the sixteen signs (widened mediastinum, loss of the aortic knob contour, opacification of the aorto- pulmonary window, bulging of the vascular pedicle predominantly to the left, left apical cap, depression of the left main stem bronchus, and dis placement of the right paraspinous interspace) are of great diagnostic value.
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