Accuracy of noninvasive coronary stenosis quantification of different commercially available dedicated software packages.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the noninvasive quantification of coronary artery stenosis using cardiac software packages and vessel phantoms with known stenosis severity.


METHODS
Four different sizes of vessel phantoms were filled with contrast agent and scanned on a 64-slice multidetector computed tomography. Diameter and area stenosis were evaluated by 2 observers blinded from the true measures using 5 different software packages. Measurements were compared with the true measure of the vessel phantoms. The absolute difference in stenosis measurements and intraobserver and interobserver variabilities were assessed.


RESULTS
All software packages show a trend toward larger differences for the smaller vessel phantoms. The absolute difference of the automatic measurements was significantly higher compared with that of the manual measurements in all 5 evaluated software packages for all vessel phantoms (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Manual stenosis measurements are significantly more accurate compared with automatic measurements, and therefore, manual adjustments are still essential for noninvasive assessment of coronary artery stenosis.
Dikkers
Riksta
R
Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. r.dikkers@rad.umcg.nl
Willems
Tineke P
TP
de Jonge
Gonda J
GJ
Marquering
Henk A
HA
Greuter
Marcel J W
MJ
van Ooijen
Peter M A
PM
van der Weide
Marijke C Jansen
MC
Oudkerk
Matthijs
M
D003287:Contrast Media; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D023921:Coronary Stenosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D015588:Observer Variation; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012984:Software; D014283:Triiodobenzoic Acids
D003287:Contrast Media; D014283:Triiodobenzoic Acids; C044834:iodixanol