The radiologic diagnosis of thoracic aortic rupture on plain film.

This paper reviews the recent literature (1968-1982) describing the radiologic diagnosis of aortic rupture and attempts to define causal relationships between rupture and radiologic signs as well as assessing respective predictive values. Also presented is a case report of a patient with thoracic aortic rupture in whom esophageal (nasogastric tube) displacement occurred to the left rather than the right, in apparent violation of one of the more newly established radiologic signs of aortic rupture.