High-Definition Computed Tomography for Coronary Artery Stent Imaging: a Phantom Study.
- Author:
Wen Jie YANG
1
;
Ke Min CHEN
;
Li Fang PANG
;
Ying GUO
;
Jian Ying LI
;
Huang ZHANG
;
Zi Lai PAN
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Stent; Coronary artery; Phantom; CTA
- MeSH: Analysis of Variance; Cardiac-Gated Imaging Techniques/methods; Coronary Disease/*radiography/*therapy; Humans; Phantoms, Imaging; Radiation Dosage; Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; *Stents; Tomography, Spiral Computed/*methods
- From:Korean Journal of Radiology 2012;13(1):20-26
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To assess the performance of a high-definition CT (HDCT) for imaging small caliber coronary stents (< or = 3 mm) by comparing different scan modes of a conventional 64-row standard-definition CT (SDCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cardiac phantom with twelve stents (2.5 mm and 3.0 mm in diameter) was scanned by HDCT and SDCT. The scan modes were retrospective electrocardiography (ECG)-gated helical and prospective ECG-triggered axial with tube voltages of 120 kVp and 100 kVp, respectively. The inner stent diameters (ISD) and the in-stent attenuation value (AVin-stent) and the in-vessel extra-stent attenuation value (AVin-vessel) were measured by two observers. The artificial lumen narrowing (ALN = [ISD - ISDmeasured]/ISD) and artificial attenuation increase between in-stent and in-vessel (AAI = AVin-stent - AVin-vessel) were calculated. All data was analyzed by intraclass correlation and ANOVA-test. RESULTS: The correlation coefficient of ISD, AVin-vessel and AVin-stent between the two observers was good. The ALNs of HDCT were statistically lower than that of SDCT (30 +/- 5.7% versus 35 +/- 5.4%, p < 0.05). HDCT had statistically lower AAI values than SDCT (15.7 +/- 81.4 HU versus 71.4 +/- 90.5 HU, p < 0.05). The prospective axial dataset demonstrated smaller ALN than the retrospective helical dataset on both HDCT and SDCT (p < 0.05). Additionally, there were no differences in ALN between the 120 kVp and 100 kVp tube voltages on HDCT (p = 0.05). CONCLUSION: High-definition CT helps improve measurement accuracy for imaging coronary stents compared to SDCT. HDCT with 100 kVp and the prospective ECG-triggered axial technique, with a lower radiation dose than 120 kVp application, may be advantageous in evaluating coronary stents with smaller calibers (< or = 3 mm).
