Noninvasive Detection of Coronary Atherosclerotic Plaques and Assessment of Stenosis Degree at Multidetector CT Coronary Angiography.
10.5124/jkma.2007.50.2.109
- Author:
Yeon Hyeon CHOE
1
Author Information
1. Department of Radiology, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Korea. yhchoe@smc.samsung.co.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Computed tomography;
Coronary CT angiography;
Coronary atherosclerosis
- MeSH:
Angiography;
Arteries;
Catheters;
Constriction, Pathologic*;
Coronary Angiography*;
Coronary Artery Disease;
Coronary Vessels;
Densitometry;
Heart Rate;
Humans;
Plaque, Atherosclerotic*;
Sensitivity and Specificity
- From:Journal of the Korean Medical Association
2007;50(2):109-119
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
64-slice MDCT has shown a sensitivity of 86 ~ 99% and a specificity of 79 ~ 96% in detecting lesions >50% stenosis. Spatial resolution of current MDCT technology enables reliable detection of nonobstructing noncalcific plaques as well as significantly stenotic lesions. CT densitometry on the plaques may give an insight on vulnerability of the lesions defined as less than 30~50 HU. MDCT coronary angiography has a tendency of overestimation of stenosis degree especially in distal segments of left anterior descending and circumflex arteries and their branches and in heavily calcified lesions as compared with quantitative catheter coronary angiography. Semi-automatic vessel segmentation techniques for coronary CT angiography may help assess the stenosis degree quantitatively. Recently developed dual-source 128-slice CT has shown diagnostic quality images in patients with high heart rates. Along with forth-coming 256-slice CT, new CT technologies are expected to enable highly reliable detection of coronary artery plaques and accurate estimation of stenosis degree.
