Detection and quantification of coronary artery calcification with electron-beam and conventional CT

Abstract

To identify patients with increased risk of having coronary artery disease (CAD), electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT) was used for years for quantifying calcifications of the coronary arteries. The first direct comparison between EBCT and conventional CT was performed to determine the reliability of widely available conventional CT for the assessment of the coronary calcium score. Fifty male patients with suspected CAD were investigated with both modalities, EBCT and conventional 500-ms non-spiral partial scan CT. Scoring of the coronary calcification was performed according to the Agatston method. Forty-two of these patients underwent coronary angiography for the assessment of significant luminal narrowing. The correlation coefficient of the score values of both modalities was highly significant (r = 0.982, p < 0.001). The variability between the two modalities was 42%. Mean calcium score in patients with significant coronary luminal narrowing (n = 37) was 1104 +/- 1089 with EBCT and 1229 +/- 1327 with conventional CT. In patients without luminal narrowing (n = 5) mean calcium score was 73 +/- 57 with EBCT and 26 +/- 35 with conventional CT. Although images of the heart from conventional CT may suffer from cardiac motion artifacts, conventional CT has the potential to identify patients with CAD with accuracy similar to EBCT.

Thirty-Month Follow-Up of Coronary Artery Calcification in Hemodialysis Patients: Different Roles for Inflammation and Abnormal Calcium-Phosphorous Metabolism?

“…The accuracy of CCT for CAC scoring is confirmed. [18,19] The examined circulating factors were measured monthly and averaged to obtain a mean value for each factor. The mean essential calcium intake per month administered as calcium carbonate during the study period was taken into account as well.…”

“…Coronary artery calcification score was evaluated every six months for a total period of 30 months in all 40 patients with CCT (Tomoscan Philips 5000) using a nonspiral 240° partial sequence scan mode, as described by Becker et al [18,19] Forty slices of 3 mm thickness were acquired from 1 cm below the tracheal bifurcation to the base of the heart. Images were acquired at the end of inspiration.…”

“…Becker et al demonstrated that CCT, which unlike EBCT is widely available, has the potential to identify patients with CAC and score it with accuracy almost similar to EBCT. [18,19] …”

Increased Epicardial, Pericardial, and Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Is Associated with the Presence and Severity of Coronary Artery Calcium

“…The density factor was assigned in the following manner: 1 for lesions for which the maximal density was 130 to 199 HU, 2 for lesions 200 to 299 HU, 3 for lesions 300 to 399 HU, and 4 for lesions $400 HU. A total calcium score was determined by summing individual lesion scores at each anatomic site (13).…”

Localizing Calcifications in Cardiac CT Data Sets Using a New Vessel Segmentation Approach

“…Several articles describe methods for quantifying the calcium, 3,4 whereas others focus on the reproducibility of the calcium scoring. 5 The reason for the usage of EBCT was the much shorter acquisition time of EBCT compared to present-generation conventional computed tomography.…”