AJR F and L Medical Products: Radiation Protection & More
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Joemai, R. M. S.
Right arrow Articles by Kroft, L. J. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Joemai, R. M. S.
Right arrow Articles by Kroft, L. J. M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Hotlight (NEW!)
Right arrow
What's Hotlight?
DOI:10.2214/AJR.08.1039
AJR 2008; 191:1690-1697
© American Roentgen Ray Society

Original Research

Automated Cardiac Phase Selection with 64-MDCT Coronary Angiography

Raoul M. S. Joemai1, Jacob Geleijns1, Wouter J. H. Veldkamp1, Albert de Roos1 and Lucia J. M. Kroft1

1 All authors: Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Leiden, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE. The aim of this study was to assess three different phase-selection methods for obtaining optimal CT coronary artery image quality.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. ECG-gated CT coronary angiography scans of 40 patients (23 men, 17 women; mean age, 56 years) were retrieved. The patient group was composed of 20 consecutive patients with heart rates ≤ 65 beats per minute (bpm) and 20 consecutive patients with heart rates > 65 bpm. Three phase-selection methods were evaluated: fixed phase selection, manual phase selection, and automated phase selection. Two scoring systems were used to evaluate diagnostic quality: scoring of axial images on a 5-point scale and scoring of multiplanar reconstructions (MPRs) on a forced-choice 3-point preference scale. Differences were tested by Wilcoxon's signed rank test for the entire patient group and the two subgroups including patients with heart rates ≤ 65 bpm and those with heart rates > 65 bpm.

RESULTS. Axial image evaluation of the entire patient group showed statistically significant superior image quality for the manual phase-selection method compared with the predefined phase-selection method and no statistically significant differences were found for the other comparisons. Analysis at heart rates ≤ 65 bpm showed no significant differences between phase-selection methods. Analysis at heart rates > 65 bpm showed the best results for the automated phase-selection method, and image quality was significantly better for the automated and manual phase-selection methods than for the predefined phase-selection method.

CONCLUSION. The automated phase-selection method accurately detects the optimal diagnostic phase for CT coronary artery evaluation and has the potential to reduce operator time needed for image reconstruction.

Keywords: cardiac imaging • cardiac phase selection • coronary arteries • coronary vessels • MDCT angiography


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2008 by the American Roentgen Ray Society.