Abstract
To determine the average heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) required for diagnostic imaging of the coronary arteries in patients undergoing high-pitch CT-angiography (CTA) with third-generation dual-source CT. Fifty consecutive patients underwent CTA of the thoracic (n = 8) and thoracoabdominal (n = 42) aorta with third-generation dual-source 192-slice CT with prospective electrocardiography (ECG)-gating at a pitch of 3.2. No β-blockers were administered. Motion artifacts of coronary arteries were graded on a 4-point scale. Average HR and HRV were noted. The average HR was 66 ± 11 beats per minute (bpm) (range 45–96 bpm); the HRV was 7.3 ± 4.4 bpm (range 3–20 bpm). Interobserver agreement on grade of image quality for the 642 coronary segments evaluated by both observers was good (κ = 0.71). Diagnostic image quality was found for 608 of the 642 segments (95 %) in 43 of 50 patients (86 %). In 14 % of the patients, image quality was nondiagnostic for at least one segment. HR (p = 0.001) was significantly higher in patients with at least one non-diagnostic segment compared to those without. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in HRV between patients with nondiagnostic segments and those with diagnostic images of all segments. All patients with a HR < 70 bpm had diagnostic image quality in all coronary segments. The effective radiation dose and scan time for the heart were 0.4 ± 0.1 mSv and 0.17 ± 0.02 s, respectively. Third-generation dual-source 192-slice CT allows for coronary angiography in the prospectively ECG-gated high-pitch mode with diagnostic image quality at HR up to 70 bpm. HRV is not significantly related to image quality of coronary CTA.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Taylor AJ, Cerqueira M, Hodgson JM et al (2010) ACCF/SCCT/ACR/AHA/ASE/ASNC/NASCI/SCAI/SCMR 2010 appropriate use criteria for cardiac computed tomography. A report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation appropriate use criteria task force, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, the American College of Radiology, the American Heart Association, the American Society of Echocardiography, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr 4:407 e1–407 e33
von Ballmoos MW, Haring B, Juillerat P, Alkadhi H (2011) Meta-analysis: diagnostic performance of low-radiation-dose coronary computed tomography angiography. Ann Intern Med 154:413–420
Hsieh J, Londt J, Vass M, Li J, Tang X, Okerlund D (2006) Step-and-shoot data acquisition and reconstruction for cardiac X-ray computed tomography. Med Phys 33:4236–4248
Hou Y, Zheng J, Wang Y, Yu M, Vembar M, Guo Q (2013) Optimizing radiation dose levels in prospectively electrocardiogram-triggered coronary computed tomography angiography using iterative reconstruction techniques: a phantom and patient study. PLoS One 8:e56295
Achenbach S, Goroll T, Seltmann M et al (2011) Detection of coronary artery stenoses by low-dose, prospectively ECG-triggered, high-pitch spiral coronary CT angiography. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging 4:328–337
Achenbach S, Marwan M, Schepis T et al (2009) High-pitch spiral acquisition: a new scan mode for coronary CT angiography. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr 3:117–121
Yin WH, Lu B, Hou ZH et al (2013) Detection of coronary artery stenosis with sub-milliSievert radiation dose by prospectively ECG-triggered high-pitch spiral CT angiography and iterative reconstruction. Eur Radiol 23:2927–2933
Scharf M, Bink R, May MS et al (2011) High-pitch thoracic CT with simultaneous assessment of coronary arteries: effect of heart rate and heart rate variability on image quality and diagnostic accuracy. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging 4:602–609
Goetti R, Baumuller S, Feuchtner G et al (2010) High-pitch dual-source CT angiography of the thoracic and abdominal aorta: is simultaneous coronary artery assessment possible? AJR Am J Roentgenol 194:938–944
Morsbach F, Desbiolles L, Plass A et al (2013) Stenosis quantification in coronary CT angiography: impact of an integrated circuit detector with iterative reconstruction. Invest Radiol 48:32–40
Austen WG, Edwards JE, Frye RL et al (1975) A reporting system on patients evaluated for coronary artery disease. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee for Grading of Coronary Artery Disease, Council on Cardiovascular Surgery, American Heart Association. Circulation 51(4 Suppl):5–40
Leschka S, Stolzmann P, Desbiolles L et al (2009) Diagnostic accuracy of high-pitch dual-source CT for the assessment of coronary stenoses: first experience. Eur Radiol 19:2896–2903
Menzel HG, Harrison JD (2012) Doses from radiation exposure. Ann ICRP 41(3–4):12–23
Macari M, Chandarana H, Schmidt B, Lee J, Lamparello P, Babb J (2006) Abdominal aortic aneurysm: can the arterial phase at CT evaluation after endovascular repair be eliminated to reduce radiation dose? Radiology 241:908–914
Lell M, Hinkmann F, Anders K et al (2009) High-pitch electrocardiogram-triggered computed tomography of the chest: initial results. Invest Radiol 44:728–733
Stolzmann P, Goetti RP, Maurovich-Horvat P et al (2011) Predictors of image quality in high-pitch coronary CT angiography. AJR Am J Roentgenol 197:851–858
Halliburton SS, Abbara S, Chen MY et al (2011) SCCT guidelines on radiation dose and dose-optimization strategies in cardiovascular CT. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr 5:198–224
Deetjen A, Mollmann S, Conradi G et al (2007) Use of automatic exposure control in multislice computed tomography of the coronaries: comparison of 16-slice and 64-slice scanner data with conventional coronary angiography. Heart 93:1040–1043
Chen MY, Shanbhag SM, Arai AE (2013) Submillisievert median radiation dose for coronary angiography with a second-generation 320-detector row CT scanner in 107 consecutive patients. Radiology 267:76–85
Gosling O, Loader R, Venables P et al (2010) A comparison of radiation doses between state-of-the-art multislice CT coronary angiography with iterative reconstruction, multislice CT coronary angiography with standard filtered back-projection and invasive diagnostic coronary angiography. Heart 96:922–926
Leipsic J, Labounty TM, Heilbron B et al (2010) Estimated radiation dose reduction using adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction in coronary CT angiography: the ERASIR study. AJR Am J Roentgenol 195:655–660
Conflict of interest
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gordic, S., Husarik, D.B., Desbiolles, L. et al. High-pitch coronary CT angiography with third generation dual-source CT: limits of heart rate. Int J Cardiovasc Imaging 30, 1173–1179 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-014-0445-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10554-014-0445-5