Volumetric measurement of pericardial adipose tissue from contrast-enhanced coronary computed tomography angiography: A reproducibility study

Nichols, John H.; Samy, Bharat; Nasir, Khurram; Fox, Caroline S.; Schulze, P. Christian; Bamberg, Fabian; Hoffmann, Udo

doi:10.1016/j.jcct.2008.08.008

« Previous Next »Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography
Volume 2, Issue 5 , Pages 288-295, September 2008

Volumetric measurement of pericardial adipose tissue from contrast-enhanced coronary computed tomography angiography: A reproducibility study

John H. Nichols, BA
- Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 165 Cambridge Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Corresponding author
Bharat Samy, MD
- Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- Co-first author.
Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH
- Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 165 Cambridge Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Caroline S. Fox, MD
- Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
- The Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA
P. Christian Schulze, MD, PhD
- New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
Fabian Bamberg, MD, MPH
- Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 165 Cambridge Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Udo Hoffmann, MD, MPH
- Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 165 Cambridge Street, Suite 400, Boston, MA 02114, USA

Received 29 February 2008; accepted 13 August 2008. published online 21 August 2008.

Purpose

Pericardial adipose tissue may exert unique metabolic and cardiovascular risks in patients. The use of cardiac multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) imaging may enable the accurate localization and quantification of pericardial and intrathoracic adipose tissue. The reproducibility of electrocardiogram-gated high-resolution cardiac MDCT-based volumetric quantification of pericardial and intrathoracic adipose tissue has not been reported.

Methods

We included 100 consecutive patients (age 54.5 ± 12.0 yr, 60% men) who underwent a standard contrast-enhanced coronary CT for the evaluation of coronary artery plaque and stenosis (64-slice MDCT, temporal resolution: 210 ms, spatial resolution: 0.6 mm, 850 mAs, 120, kvp) after a presentation of acute chest pain. Two independent observers measured intrathoracic (IAT) and pericardial adipose tissue (PAT) by using a semiautomatic segmentation algorithm based on three-dimensional analysis.

Results

Inter-reader reproducibility was excellent (relative difference: 7.35 ± 7.22% for PAT and 6.23 ± 4.91% for IAT, intraclass correlation 0.98 each). Similar results were obtained for intra-observer reproducibility (relative difference: 5.18 ± 5.19% for PAT and 4.34 ± 4.12% for IAT, intraclass correlation 0.99 each).

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that MDCT-based 3D semiautomatic segmentation for volumetric quantification of PAT and IAT is highly reproducible. Further research is warranted to assess whether volumetric measurements may substantially improve the predictive value of obesity measures for insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: Computed tomography, Pericardial adipose tissue, Reproducibility