Keywords:
Quality assurance, Radiation safety, CT-Angiography, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, Cardiac
Authors:
O. Ghekiere1, J. Djekic1, M. El Hachemi1, D. Hansen2, A.-S. Vanhoenacker3, P. Dendale2, A. Nchimi Longang1; 1Liège/BE, 2Hasselt/BE, 3Aalst/BE
Purpose
Coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) is a noninvasive imaging tool for evaluation of the coronary arteries,
with high sensitivity and high negative predictive value to exclude significant coronary artery disease (1).
In the early days,
effective radiation doses of up to 21 mSv have been reported for CCTA (2).
Despite the recent advent of multidetector technologies allowing a better image quality and lower radiation doses,
heart rate control by beta-blockers has remained key for improved cardiac image quality and radiation dose (3-5).
Nevertheless,
beta-blockers are not harmless and can’t be administered to all patients.
Moreover,
20 to 30% of patients do not achieve the target heart rate with preparation of beta-blockers (6-8).
More recently,
the 2nd generation 320-detector row CT scanner with a gantry rotation time of 275 msec and volume coverage up to 16 cm allows excellent image quality while reducing the radiation dose over a wide range of body sizes and heart rates (9,10).
Given these recent advances,
we aim to investigate if beta-blocker administration for CCTA using a 2nd generation 320-detector rows CT scanner is required for diagnostic image quality and low radiation dose.