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Feasibility and diagnostic performance of fractional flow reserve measurement derived from coronary computed tomography angiography in real clinical practice

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Abstract

Non-invasive fractional flow reserve measured by coronary computed tomography angiography (FFRCT) has demonstrated a high diagnostic accuracy for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) in selected patients in prior clinical trials. However, feasibility of FFRCT in unselected population have not been fully evaluated. Among 60 consecutive patients who had suspected significant CAD by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and were planned to undergo invasive coronary angiography, 48 patients were enrolled in this study comparing FFRCT with invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) without any exclusion criteria for the quality of CCTA image. FFRCT was measured in a blinded fashion by an independent core laboratory. FFRCT value was evaluable in 43 out of 48 (89.6 %) patients with high prevalence of severe calcification in CCTA images [calcium score (CS) >400: 40 %, and CS > 1000: 19 %). Per-vessel FFRCT value showed good correlation with invasive FFR value (Spearman’s rank correlation = 0.69, P < 0.001). The area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC) of FFRCT was 0.87. Per-vessel accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 68.6, 92.9, 52.4, 56.5, and 91.7 %, respectively. Even in eight patients (13 vessels) with extremely severely calcified lesions (CS > 1000), per-vessel FFRCT value showed a diagnostic performance similar to that in patients with CS ≤ 1000 (Spearman’s rank correlation = 0.81, P < 0.001). FFRCT could be measured in the majority of consecutive patients who had suspected significant CAD by CCTA in real clinical practice and demonstrated good diagnostic performance for detecting hemodynamically significant CAD even in patients with extremely severe calcified vessels.

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Abbreviations

AUC:

Area under the receiver operator characteristics curve

CAD:

Coronary artery disease

CCTA:

Coronary computed tomography angiography

CS:

Calcium score

FFR:

Fractional flow reserve

FFRCT :

Fractional flow reserve measured by coronary computed tomography angiography

NPV:

Negative predictive value

PCI:

Percutaneous coronary intervention

PPV:

Positive predictive value

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Acknowledgments

We appreciated all the members of the CT and cardiac catheterization laboratory in Graduate school of cardiovascular medicine, Kyoto University and Morishita heart clinic for their contribution to this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Shogoin Kawahara-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8507, Japan

    Tetsuma Kawaji, Hiroki Shiomi, Hirotoshi Watanabe, Junichi Tazaki, Masao Imai, Naritatsu Saito, Satoshi Shizuta, Koh Ono & Takeshi Kimura

  2. Morishita Heart Clinic, Kyoto, Japan

    Hiroshi Morishita & Kazuhisa Morihiro

  3. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Japan

    Takeshi Morimoto

  4. HeartFlow Inc., Redwood City, USA

    Charles A. Taylor

  5. Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

    Charles A. Taylor

  6. Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, USA

    Shotaro Kanao, Koji Koizumi, Satoshi Kozawa & Kaori Togashi

Authors
  1. Tetsuma Kawaji
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  2. Hiroki Shiomi
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  3. Hiroshi Morishita
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  4. Takeshi Morimoto
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  5. Charles A. Taylor
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  6. Shotaro Kanao
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  7. Koji Koizumi
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  8. Satoshi Kozawa
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  9. Kazuhisa Morihiro
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  10. Hirotoshi Watanabe
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  11. Junichi Tazaki
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  12. Masao Imai
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  13. Naritatsu Saito
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  14. Satoshi Shizuta
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  15. Koh Ono
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  16. Kaori Togashi
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  17. Takeshi Kimura
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroki Shiomi.

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Conflict of interest

This study was a collaborative study of Kyoto University Hospital with HeartFlow Inc. and C.A. The study was funded by the unrestricted grant of Kyoto University Hospital. FFRCT was evaluated free of charge by HeartFlow Inc. C.A. Taylor is an employee and shareholder of HeartFlow Inc. All the other authors have no conflict of disclosures.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kawaji, T., Shiomi, H., Morishita, H. et al. Feasibility and diagnostic performance of fractional flow reserve measurement derived from coronary computed tomography angiography in real clinical practice. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 33, 271–281 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-016-0995-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-016-0995-9

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