Olivier Ghekiere1, Alain Nchimi2, Julien Djekic3, Mounia El Hachemi2, Isabelle Mancini3, Dominique Hansen4, Piet Vanhoenacker5, Albert de Roos6, Paul Dendale7. 1. Department of Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Chrétien (CHC), Rue de Hesbaye, 75, B-4000 Liège, Belgium; Department of Radiology, Jessa Hospital, Stadsomvaart 11, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium; Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Biomed and Reval, Hasselt University, Agoralaan, Building A and C, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. Electronic address: olivierghekiere@gmail.com. 2. Liège University (ULg), GIGA Cardiovascular Sciences, Domaine Universitaire du Sart Tilman, Rue de l'hôpital, 1, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. 3. Department of Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Chrétien (CHC), Rue de Hesbaye, 75, B-4000 Liège, Belgium. 4. Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Biomed and Reval, Hasselt University, Agoralaan, Building A and C, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium. 5. Department of Radiology, OLV Hospital Aalst, Moorselbaan 164, B-9300 Aalst, Belgium. 6. Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef, 2, NL-2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands. 7. Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Biomed and Reval, Hasselt University, Agoralaan, Building A and C, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium; Heart Center Hasselt, Jessa Hospital, Stadsomvaart, 11, B-3500 Hasselt, Belgium.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To investigate the diagnostic confidence of Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) and the effect of patient-related factors on CCTA image quality using a second-generation 320-slice scanner. METHODS AND RESULTS: 200 consecutive patients (mean age 60±12years; 109 men) prospectively underwent CCTA. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 27.1±4.9kg/m(2); the median heart rate (HR) was 60.0 (interquartile range (IQR), 53.9-66.1) beats per minute (bpm). The median segment's diameter was 2.8 (IQR, 2.2-3.4) mm. For each coronary segment ≥1.5mm in diameter, two readers scored: diameter narrowing as < or ≥50%, overall diagnostic confidence and motion-related image quality, with interobserver agreement kappa-values of 0.89, 0.91 and 0.61 respectively. Seventy-nine of the 2505 evaluated segments (3.2%) had non-diagnostic image quality because of coronary calcifications (66/79; 83.5%), stent- (6/79; 7.5%), pacemaker- (2/79; 2.5%) or motion-related artifacts (5/79; 6.5%). The effect of patient-related factors on motion-related image quality was investigated by multinomial logistic regression in 181 patients with calcium score (IQR, 0-446.5). Increasing coronary diameter was the most improving image quality factor (odds ratio (OR), 1.8637; p<0.001), marginally followed by lower HR (OR, 0.9547; p<0.001) and calcium score (OR, 0.9997; p=0.04). Gender (p=0.70), age (p=0.24) and BMI (p=0.45) did not affect image quality. CONCLUSION: Using a second-generation 320-slice scanner, CCTA diagnostic confidence is predominantly affected by coronary calcifications, whereas motion-related image quality is non-diagnostic only in exceptional cases and mainly influenced by the coronary diameter. For future developments, our study findings therefore suggest greater requirements concerning spatial resolution and calcium-related artifact removal than concerning temporal resolution, especially to improve diagnostic confidence in patient groups with smaller coronary diameters.
PURPOSE: To investigate the diagnostic confidence of Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) and the effect of patient-related factors on CCTA image quality using a second-generation 320-slice scanner. METHODS AND RESULTS: 200 consecutive patients (mean age 60±12years; 109 men) prospectively underwent CCTA. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 27.1±4.9kg/m(2); the median heart rate (HR) was 60.0 (interquartile range (IQR), 53.9-66.1) beats per minute (bpm). The median segment's diameter was 2.8 (IQR, 2.2-3.4) mm. For each coronary segment ≥1.5mm in diameter, two readers scored: diameter narrowing as < or ≥50%, overall diagnostic confidence and motion-related image quality, with interobserver agreement kappa-values of 0.89, 0.91 and 0.61 respectively. Seventy-nine of the 2505 evaluated segments (3.2%) had non-diagnostic image quality because of coronary calcifications (66/79; 83.5%), stent- (6/79; 7.5%), pacemaker- (2/79; 2.5%) or motion-related artifacts (5/79; 6.5%). The effect of patient-related factors on motion-related image quality was investigated by multinomial logistic regression in 181 patients with calcium score (IQR, 0-446.5). Increasing coronary diameter was the most improving image quality factor (odds ratio (OR), 1.8637; p<0.001), marginally followed by lower HR (OR, 0.9547; p<0.001) and calcium score (OR, 0.9997; p=0.04). Gender (p=0.70), age (p=0.24) and BMI (p=0.45) did not affect image quality. CONCLUSION: Using a second-generation 320-slice scanner, CCTA diagnostic confidence is predominantly affected by coronary calcifications, whereas motion-related image quality is non-diagnostic only in exceptional cases and mainly influenced by the coronary diameter. For future developments, our study findings therefore suggest greater requirements concerning spatial resolution and calcium-related artifact removal than concerning temporal resolution, especially to improve diagnostic confidence in patient groups with smaller coronary diameters.
Authors: Nidaa Mikail; Alexia Rossi; Susan Bengs; Ahmed Haider; Barbara E Stähli; Angela Portmann; Alessio Imperiale; Valerie Treyer; Alexander Meisel; Aju P Pazhenkottil; Michael Messerli; Vera Regitz-Zagrosek; Philipp A Kaufmann; Ronny R Buechel; Cathérine Gebhard Journal: Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging Date: 2022-08-17 Impact factor: 10.057