title: Influence of heart rate on diagnostic accuracy and image quality of 16-slice CT coronary angiography: comparison of multisegment and halfscan reconstruction approaches.
abstract: The lower the heart rate the better image quality in multislice computed tomography (MSCT) coronary angiography. We prospectively assessed the influence of heart rate on per-patient diagnostic accuracy and image quality of MSCT coronary angiography and compared adaptive multisegment and standard halfscan reconstruction. A consecutive cohort of 126 patients scheduled to undergo conventional coronary angiography was examined with 16-slice CT. For all heart rate groups, per-patient diagnostic accuracy was significantly higher for multisegment than halfscan reconstruction with values of 95 vs. 79% (p < 0.05, <65 bpm, 38 patients), 85 vs. 66% (p < 0.05, 65-74 bpm, 47 patients), and 78% vs. 41% (p < 0.001, >74 bpm, 41 patients). Differences in diagnostic accuracy between adjacent heart rate groups were only significant for halfscan reconstruction for the comparison between the 65-74 and >74 bpm group (p < 0.05). The vessel lengths free of motion artifacts were significantly longer with multisegment reconstruction in all heart rate groups and for all coronary arteries (p < 0.005). For noninvasive MSCT coronary angiography, both per-patient diagnostic accuracy and image quality decline with increasing heart rate, and multisegment reconstruction at high heart rates yields similar results as standard halfscan reconstruction at low heart rates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, P.O. Box 10098, 10117, Berlin, Germany. marc.dewey@charite.de
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dewey
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Teige
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laule
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hamm
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*