Journal of cardiovascular computed tomography最新文献

Aims: The objective of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic performance of Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) and a hybrid approach that incorporates Computed Tomography Perfusion (CTP) in addition to CCTA (CCTA ​+ ​CTP) for the detection of in-stent restenosis (ISR), as defined by angiography.

Methods: A comprehensive search of articles identified 18,513 studies. After removing duplicates, title/abstract screening, and full-text review, 17 CCTA and 3 CCTA ​+ ​CTP studies were included. Only studies using ≥64-slices multidetector computed tomography (CT) were considered eligible.

Results: The per-patient ISR prevalence was 43 ​%, with 92 ​% of stents fully interpretable with CCTA. Meta-analysis exhibited a per-stent CCTA (n ​= ​2674) sensitivity of 90 ​% (95 ​% CI; 84-94 ​%), specificity of 89 ​% (95 ​% CI; 86-92 ​%), positive likelihood ratio of 7.17 (95 ​% CI; 5.24-9.61), negative likelihood ratio of 0.17 (95 ​% CI; 0.10-0.25), and diagnostic odds ratio of 45.7 (95 ​% CI; 22.71-82.43). Additional sensitivity analyses revealed no influence of stent diameter or strut thickness on the diagnostic yield of CCTA. The per-stent diagnostic performance of CCTA ​+ ​CTP (n ​= ​752) did not show differences compared to CCTA.

Conclusions: With currently utilized scanners, CCTA and CCTA ​+ ​CTP demonstrated high diagnostic performance for in-stent restenosis evaluation. Consequently, a history of previous stent implantation should not be an argument to preclude using these methods in clinically suspected patients.

Background: The increased specificity of ultrahigh-resolution (UHR) photon-counting detector (PCD)-CT over energy-integrating detector (EID)-CT for coronary CT angiography (CCTA) could defer unwarranted downstream tests. The objective of the study was to simulate the cost-effectiveness of UHR CCTA in stable chest pain patients with coronary calcifications.

Methods: A decision and simulation model was developed using Monte Carlo simulations with 1000 bootstrap resamples to estimate the costs associated with PCD-CT in lieu of EID-CT for CCTA and the referral for subsequent testing. The model was constructed using the diagnostic accuracy metrics of 55 coronary lesions in patients who underwent CCTA on both CT systems and subsequent invasive coronary angiography (ICA). Sensitivity and specificity were defined for each Coronary Artery Disease Reporting and Data System category. The aggregate healthcare expenditures were derived from the hospital billing system.

Results: Assuming a projected cohort of 15,000 patients over the lifetime of the PCD-CT, its implementation resulted in a 18.9 ​% reduction in the number of functional follow-up tests (6330.3 ​± ​59.5 vs. 5135.7 ​± ​60.6, p ​< ​0.001), a 6.0 ​% reduction in performed ICAs (1447.7 ​± ​36.2 vs. 1360.2 ​± ​34.7, p ​< ​0.001), and a 9.4 ​% decrease in major procedure-related complications. Over a 10-year expected life expectancy, PCD-CT led to an average cost saving of $794.50 ​± ​18.50 per patient and an overall cost difference of $11,917,500 ​± ​4,350,169.

Conclusions: PCD-CT has the potential to reduce the financial burden on healthcare systems and procedure-related complications for stable chest pain patients with coronary calcification when compared to EID-CT.

Background: Left ventricular (LV) mass is a well-established prognostic indicator for cardiovascular risk. Measurement of LV mass on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is considered optional. We aimed to assess for associations between LV mass measured on CCTA with all-cause mortality (ACM) risk and to determine age- and sex-specific distributions.

Methods: We evaluated patients without known coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent CCTA at a single center. We assessed age- and sex-specific distributions (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) of LV mass index. ACM, the primary endpoint, was recorded over a median period of 5.1 [interquartile range: 1.4-8.4] years. The association between LV mass and mortality risk was assessed using multivariable Cox models adjusted for age, sex, medical history, coronary artery calcium (CAC) score and CCTA stenosis.

Results: 4187 patients (mean age: 61.9 ​± ​11.7, 63 ​% male) were included. Male sex, African American ethnicity, Hypertension, CAC>400, and smoking were independent predictors of increased LV mass index. During the median 5.1 years of study follow, 265 (6.3 ​%) deaths occurred. Increased LV mass index percentiles were associated with increased risk of ACM. The addition of LV mass index percentiles improved discrimination and reclassification for mortality prediction over a model with age, sex, conventional risk factors, CAC score and CCTA stenosis severity (X² improvement: 22.68, NRI: 28 ​%, both p ​< ​0.001).

Conclusion: In a large sample of patients without known CAD who underwent CCTA, increased LV mass index provided independent and incremental prognostic value for all-cause mortality. Assessment of LV mass by CCTA, considering age and gender distribution, can be utilized clinically to identify patients with high myocardial mass.

Background: The fat attenuation index (FAI) measured using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) enables the direct evaluation of pericoronary adipose tissue composition and vascular inflammation. We aimed to investigate the association of fractional flow reserve (FFR) and plaque vulnerability with coronary inflammation.

Methods: Patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent CCTA and invasive FFR measurements within 90-day were included. A cloud-based medical device, CaRi-Heart, serves as a surrogate tool for evaluating coronary inflammation based on FAI by analyzing CCTA images. The correlations between CCTA-defined plaque characteristics, invasive coronary angiographic and physiologic assessments, and CaRi-Heart risk were analyzed. The primary endpoint was the patient-oriented composite outcome (POCO) consisting of all-cause death, any myocardial infarction, and any revascularization.

Results: A total of 564 patients (median age 67.0 years; 75.4 ​% men) were included. There were no significant differences in quantitative and qualitative plaque characteristics or FFR between the high- and low-CaRi-Heart risk groups (i.e., ≥5 ​% and <5 ​%). During the median follow-up of 3.2 years [1.13-4.73 years], CaRi-Heart risk ≥5 ​% was associated with a significantly higher rate of POCO compared to CaRi-Heart risk <5 ​% (0.9 ​% vs. 10.1 ​%, P ​= ​0.037). The CaRi-Heart risk was an independent predictor of POCO as a continuous (adjusted HR 1.016, 95 ​% CI 1.005-0.027, P ​= ​0.004) and categorical variable (CaRi-Heart risk ≥5 ​%, adjusted HR 2.949, 95 ​% CI 1.182-7.360, P ​= ​0.021), regardless of high-risk plaque characteristics and FFR.

Conclusion: Coronary inflammation risk assessed using CaRi-Heart risk provides independent prognostic information regardless of plaque vulnerability and physiologic stenosis in patients with CAD.

Background: Murray-law based quantitative flow ratio, namely μFR, was recently validated to compute fractional flow reserve (FFR) from coronary angiographic images in the cath lab. Recently, the μFR algorithm was applied to coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) and a semi-automated computed μFR (CT-μFR) showed good accuracy in identifying flow-limiting coronary lesions prior to referral of patients to the cath lab. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of an artificial intelligence-powered method for fully automatic CCTA reconstruction and CT-μFR computation, using cath lab physiology as reference standard.

Methods: This was a post-hoc blinded analysis of the prospective CAREER trial (NCT04665817). Patients who underwent CCTA, coronary angiography including FFR within 30 days were included. Cath lab physiology standard for determining hemodynamically significant coronary stenosis was defined as FFR≤0.80, or μFR≤0.80 when FFR was not available.

Results: Automatic CCTA reconstruction and CT-μFR computation was successfully achieved in 657 vessels from 242 patients. CT-μFR showed good correlation (r ​= ​0.62, p ​< ​0.001) and agreement (mean difference ​= ​-0.01 ​± ​0.10, p ​< ​0.001) with cath lab physiology standard. Patient-level diagnostic accuracy for CT-μFR to identify patients with hemodynamically significant stenosis was 83.0 ​% (95%CI: 78.3%-87.8 ​%), with sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, positive and negative likelihood ratio of 84.2 ​%, 81.9 ​%, 82.1 ​%, 84.0 ​%, 4.7 and 0.2, respectively. Average analysis time for CT-μFR was 1.60 ​± ​0.34 ​min per patient.

Conclusion: The fully automatic CT-μFR yielded high feasibility and good diagnostic performance in identifying patients with hemodynamically significant stenosis prior to referral of patients to the cath lab.

Purpose: To characterize preprocedural coronary atherosclerotic lesions derived from CCTA and assess their association with in-stent restenosis (ISR) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Materials and methods: This retrospective cohort-study included patients who underwent CCTA for suspected coronary artery disease, subsequent index angiography including PCI and surveillance angiography within 6-8 months after the index procedure. We performed a plaque analysis of culprit lesions on CCTA using a dedicated plaque analysis software including assessment of the surrounding pericoronary fat attenuation index (FAI) and compared findings between lesions with and without ISR at surveillance angiography after stenting.

Results: Overall 278 coronary lesions in 209 patients were included. Of these lesions, 43 (15.5 ​%) had ISR at surveillance angiography after stenting while 235 (84.5 ​%) did not. Likewise, plaque composition such as volume of calcification [129.8 mm³ (83.3-212.6) vs. 94.4 mm³ (60.4-160.5) p ​= ​0.06] and lipid-rich and fibrous plaque volume [38.4 mm³ (19.4-71.2) vs. 38.0 mm³ (14.0-59.1), p ​= ​0.11 and 50.4 mm³ (26.1-77.6) vs. 42.1 mm³ (31.1-60.3), p ​= ​0.16] between lesion with and without ISR were not statistically significant. However lesions associated with ISR were more eccentric (n ​= ​37, 86.0 ​% versus n ​= ​159, 67,7 ​%; p ​= ​0.03) and more frequently demonstrated calcified portions on opposite sides on the vessel wall on cross-sectional datasets (n ​= ​24, 55.8 ​% versus n ​= ​55, 23.4 ​%, p ​= ​0.001). FAI_lesion was significantly different in lesions with ISR as compared to those without ISR [-76.5 (-80.1 to -73.6) vs. -80.9 (-88.9 to -74.0), p ​= ​0.02]. There was no difference with respect to FAI_RCA between the two groups [-77.4 (-81.9 to -75.6) vs. -78.5 (-86.0 to -71.0), p ​= ​0.41].

Conclusion: Coronary lesions associated with ISR at surveillance angiography demonstrated differences in the arrangement of calcified portions as well as an increased lesion-specific pericoronary fat attenuation index at baseline CCTA. This latter finding suggests that perivascular inflammation at baseline may play a major role in the development of in-stent restenosis.

Background: Disparities exist in medicine and can affect patient care. We sought to understand influences of racial biases in diagnostic testing within a Cardiac CT (CCT) population.

Methods: Race of CCT patients, referring physicians and the population in the catchment area were captured between February 2006 and November 2021. The frequency of CCT referrals for each race was indexed to the catchment population.

Results: Of 21,241 CCT patients, 17,514 (82.5 ​%) patients were White. The Non-White population was comprised of 467(2.2 ​%) Indigenous, 656(3.1 ​%) Black, 932(4.4 ​%) Asian, 276(1.3 ​%) South Asian, 1100(5.2 ​%) Middle Eastern and 296(1.4 ​%) Latin American races. The catchment population was 907,675, with 619,514 individuals of whom 69.7 ​% identified as White. Compared to the catchment population, there was a disproportionately higher referral rate for Whites than Non-Whites. The referral index for Whites was higher than Non-Whites (1.2 versus 0.6, p ​< ​0.001)). This pattern was consistent across all racial minorities and age categories. A total of 356 physicians (236(66.3 ​%) White, 4(1.2 ​%) Black, 39(12.0 ​%) Asian, 30(9.2 ​%) South Asian, 43(13.2 ​%), Middle Eastern and 4 (1.2 ​%) Latin American) made referrals to CCT. The racial difference in referral patterns was independent of physician race and was independent of their years in practice.

Conclusions: Racial differences exist in CCT referrals. These differences are independent of prevalence of disease, physician race or years in practice. This study supports the need to better understand reasons for disparity and strategies to mitigate potential bias.