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22nd Congress of the European Society of Cardiology, August 2000, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Percentile distribution of coronary calcification in patients without angina with the new ultrafast multirow spiral computed tomography.
S. Silber, B. Gruschka-Hellemann, H. P. Hellemann.
Dr. Müller Hospital, Munich and Heart Diagnostic Center, Munich, Germany
Eur Heart J, 21: Abstr. Suppl., 568, 2000
Screening for coronary artery calcifications (CAC) in apparently healthy individuals becomes increasingly attractive as a search tool for an additional risk marker. Usually, this "calcium score" is determined with electron beam tomography (EBT) using the Agatston score. EBT, however, has several limitations: it is too expensive for a widespread screening tool and recently, its fixed spatial resolution and relatively low signal/noise ratio was discussed. Latest progress in the development of spiral CTs lead to a new technology with a rotational speed of 500 ms. With an reconstruction angle of 180°, four slices can be simultaneously acquired in 250 ms, approaching the speed of EBT with the potential for a superior spatial resolution. To evaluate the assessment of coronary calcification with this new multirow ultrafast CT, we examined a population (pop) of 1000 consecutive asymptomatic individuals at 90 and 130 HU in the prospectice ECG-triggered mode according to the maximum (max) and average (avg) method respectively. 73% of pop was male (m) with a mean age of 52±10 y (30-82), the mean age of the female (f) pop was 58.7±9.5 y (35-78).
90 HU max 90 HU avg 130 HU max 130 HU avg LM-m 18.9±80.7 24.5±231.5 12.1±56.2 6.3±26.5 LM-f 8.9 ±56.1 3.8±23.9 5.5±39.7 3.3±21.0 LAD-m 69.8±215.0 26.8±73.9 42.7±143.4 21.4±64.8 LAD-f 18.4±61.1 9.0±27.4 10.7±35.4 6.2±19.3 RCx-m 24.3±99.9 10.5±37.0 11.5±55.9 6.0±26.3 RCx-f 74.9±365.5 28.0±127.8 47.4±250.6 21.3±109.2 RCA-m 19.0±72.1 8.9±30.7 6.9±31.3 4.1±17.2 RCA-f 15.3±56.1 6.9±20.9 6.7±33.1 3.9±15.9 total-m 131.5±356.9 70.7±282.6 73.2±219.5 37.8±103.6 total-f 117.2±437.4 47.6±161.4 70.5±295.6 34.6±133.7 Conclusion: Screening for CAC with the new ultrafast multirow spiral ECG-triggered CT is easy and can be done during a single breath hold. As compared to EBT, the standards possibly have to be redefined.
