title: Prosthetic heart valve assessment with multidetector-row CT: imaging characteristics of 91 valves in 83 patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Multidetector CT (MDCT) has shown potential for prosthetic heart valve (PHV) assessment. We assessed the image quality of different PHV types to determine which valves are suitable for MDCT evaluation.
  
  
  METHODS
  All ECG-gated CTs performed in our institutions since 2003 were reviewed for the presence of PHVs. After reconstruction in 3 specific PHV planes, image quality of the supravalvular, perivalvular, subvalvular and valvular regions was scored on a four-point scale (1 = non-diagnostic, 2 = moderate, 3 = good and 4 = excellent) by two independent observers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-four CT examinations (66 cardiac, 18 limited-dose aortic protocols) of 83 patients with a total of 91 PHVs in the aortic (n = 71), mitral (n = 17), pulmonary (n = 1) and tricuspid (n = 2) position were included. CT was performed on a 16-slice (n = 4), 64-slice (n = 28) or 256-slice (n = 52) MDCT system. Median image quality scores for the supra-, peri- and subvalvular regions and valvular detail were (3.5, 3.3, 3.5 and 3.5, respectively) for bileaflet PHV; (3.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 3.0, respectively) for Medtronic Hall PHV; (1.0, 1.0, 1.0 and 1.0, respectively) for Björk-Shiley and Sorin monoleaflet PHV and (3.5, 3.5, 4.0 and 2.0 respectively) for biological PHV.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Currently implanted PHVs have good image quality on MDCT and are suitable for MDCT evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, UMC Utrecht, P.O. Box 85500, E01.132, 3508, GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands. J.Habets@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Habets
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Symersky
authors.forename: Lex A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: van Herwerden
authors.forename: Bas A J M
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: de Mol
authors.forename: Anje M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Spijkerboer
authors.forename: Willem P Th M
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Mali
authors.forename: Ricardo P J
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Budde
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D007472:Iohexol / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D007472:Iohexol; C038192:iopromide