The Heart Surgery Forum, Volume 8, Issue 1

Quantification of Coronary Artery Stenosis with 16-Slice MSCT in Patients before CABG Surgery: Comparison to Standard Invasive Coronary Angiography

C. Probst,¹ A. Kovacs,² C. Schmitz,¹ W. Schiller,¹ H. Schild,² A. Welz¹

Departments of ¹Cardiac Surgery and ²Radiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

ABSTRACT

Objective: Invasive, selective coronary angiography is the gold standard for evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD) and degree of stenosis. The purpose of this study was to compare 3-dimensional (3D) reconstructed 16-slice multislice computed tomographic (MSCT) angiography and selective coronary angiography in patients before elective coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedure.

Methods: Sixteen-slice MSCT scans (Philips Mx8000 IDT) were performed in 50 patients (42 male/8 female; mean age, 64.44 ± 8.66 years) scheduled for elective CABG procedure. Scans were retrospectively electrocardiogram-gated 3D reconstructed. The images of the coronary arteries were evaluated for stenosis by 2 independent radiologists. The results were compared with the coronary angiography findings using the American Heart Association segmental classification for coronary arteries.

Results: Four patients (8%) were excluded for technical reasons. Thirty-eight patients (82.6%) had 3-vessel disease, 4 (8.7 %) had 2-vessel disease, and 4 (8.7%) had an isolated left anterior descending artery stenosis. In the proximal segments all stenoses >50% (56/56) were detected by MSCT; medial segment sensitivity was 97% (73/75), specificity 90.3%; distal segment sensitivity was 90.7% (59/65), specificity 77%.

Conclusion: Accurate quantification of coronary stenosis greater than 50% in the proximal and medial segments is possible with high sensitivity and specificity using the new generation of 16-slice MSCTs. There is still a tendency to overestimate stenosis in the distal segments. MSCT seems to be an excellent diagnostic tool for screening patients with possible CAD.

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