The influence of cardiac function on coronary arterial enhancement at coronary computed tomography angiography: A cross-sectional study.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of ejection fraction (EF) on peak aortic time (PAT) and peak aortic enhancement (PAE) during coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA).


METHODS
One-hundred and twenty patients (64 men, 56 women) underwent measurement of coronary CTA with a measurement of EF within 3 months of coronary CTA. Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis was used to investigate the relationships between EF, PAT and PAE, and peak attenuation of all coronary arteries.


RESULTS
The range of EF was (25%-70%) (mean: 55 ± 7.7). The range of PAT and PAE of ascending aorta on bolus test was 13-31 s (mean: 19.3 ± 2) and 153-435 HU (mean: 235 ± 40.6), respectively. Mean peak attenuation of ascending aorta, right coronary artery, left coronary artery, left circumflex artery, and left anterior descending were (561 ± 119), (476 ± 109), (505 ± 108), (467 ± 113), and (473 ± 104), respectively. There was a negative correlation between EF and PAT (r= -0.266,P= 0.003); however, there was no significant correlation between EF and PAE (r= -0.027,P= 0.767). In addition, there was no significant correlation between EF and the peak attenuation of coronary arteries.


CONCLUSIONS
PAT was related to EF, but there was no relationship between PAE and EF. One of the explanation is that the left ventricular EF used for our study was assessed with echocardiography which is used roughly estimation of EF with interval of 5%-10% and may cause confounding results.
Department of Radiology and Imaging, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Maryam
M
Moradi
Department of Radiology and Imaging, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Peiman
P
Hashemi
Department of Radiology and Imaging, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Mohammad
M
Momeni
Computed tomography; contrast enhancement; coronary artery; ejection fraction