Abstract:
Objective The first 320-slice spiral CT independently developed in China had been approved for clinical application. In this study, this new CT equipment was used for coronary CT angiography (CCTA), and the imaging quality and radiation dose were preliminarily evaluated under different heart rate and cardiac rhythm conditions.
Methods From May 11, 2020 to June 19, 2020, a total of 160 patients underwent CCTA using this type of CT. The patients with sinus rhythm were divided into low heart rate group, medium heart rate group, and high heart rate group, and patients with arrhythmias were classified into arrhythmia group. The image quality of CCTA was graded at 4 levels, and the excellent rate and good rate of the images were calculated according to the score. The image quality distribution and effective doses of the proximal, middle, and distal segments of the coronary arteries under different rhythm and rates were analyzed.
Results 129 patients with normal heart rate (low heart rate group: 40 cases; medium heart rate group: 57 cases; high heart rate group: 32 patients) and 17 patients with arrhythmia were included in this study. Totally, 1 929 coronary artery segments were evaluated, and the diagnostic rate was 99.79%. The overall excellent rate of coronary segments was 47.0%, and the good rate was 88.9%. The overall excellent and good rates of coronary artery images in the four groups were 88.4%, 89.4%, 88.4%, and 89.7%, respectively, with no statistically significant difference among different groups. The excellent rates were 48.2%, 50.1%, 45.8%, and 36.3% (P=0.004), respectively, and the excellent rates in the arrhythmia group were significantly lower than those in the low heart rate group and the moderate heart rate group (P=0.003 and 0.001, respectively). With the coronary artery branches from proximal to distal, the excellent rate and good rate of image quality decrease significantly. The effective dose of arrhythmia group was significantly higher than those of the other three groups (P < 0.001).
Conclusions The new 320-slice spiral CT can obtain images that meet clinical diagnostic requirements under different heart rate and cardiac rhythm conditions, and the heart rate and cardiac rhythm factors have no effect on the overall quality of coronary images.