Aims and objectives
The Coronary artery calcification score (CACS) is a quantitative measurement of the extent of coronary calcification,
and it is highly correlated with the total amount of atherosclerotic plaques,
and is known to be an independent predictor of coronary artery stenosis and subsequent ischemic heart disease.
There are several methods for measuring the calcium score,
such as volume scores and derived calcium mass,
but the Agatston score is the most widely used and have clinical significance.
In this method,
a lesion whose attenuation is greater than...
Methods and materials
Study population
From December 2017 to April 2018,
28 Patients older than 50 who underwent chest CT without using contrast media according to any other clinical need were prospectively enrolled,
and informed consent from participants was waived. Among these people,
we exclude 8 patients whose calcium score that is taken by calcium score CT was 0.
Finally,
the results of 20 patients were analyzed in this study.
CT acquisition and parameters
All CT scans were performed on a 256-slice CT scanner (Revolution,
GE healthcare,
Waukesha,...
Results
Participant characteristics
Twenty subjects (M:F = 13:7,
mean age = 67.7 ± 2.1 years) that clinically required non-chest CT scans were prospectively enrolled. The mean height was 162.8 ± 11.7cm; body weight,
64.2± 13.2 kg; and heart rate during scanning,
75.7 ± 13.1 beats per minute.The demographic data related to the past history of the patient were as follows.
Calcium score in calcium score CT
Mean CACS on the coronary calcium scoring CT was 346.4 ± 535.4.
Mean CACS on the non-enhanced chest CT with...
Conclusion
CACS assessment is feasible on the non-enhanced chest CT with 16cm axial volume scan technique.
Among the various slice thicknesses,
0.0625 mm slice thickness was highest correlation for the CACS on the non-enhanced chest CT.
References
Agatston,
Arthur S.,
et al.
"Quantification of coronary artery calcium using ultrafast computed tomography." Journal of the American College of Cardiology 15.4 (1990): 827-832.
Rumberger,
John A.,
et al.
"Electron beam computed tomographic coronary calcium scanning: a review and guidelines for use in asymptomatic persons." Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
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Hecht,
Harvey S.,
et al.
"2016 SCCT/STR guidelines for coronary artery calcium scoring of noncontrast noncardiac chest CT scans: A report of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography and Society of...