Abstract
Infective endocarditis (IE) is a disease characterized by high rates of morbidity
and mortality that can present with a spectrum of clinical and imaging findings. Cardiac-gated
computed tomographic angiography (CTA) has been shown to be highly accurate in evaluation
of both coronary artery disease and structural heart disease and is now considered
an appropriate preoperative imaging modality in patients undergoing noncoronary cardiac
surgery. This review discusses the use of cardiac-gated CTA in preoperative evaluation
of patients with IE, with emphasis on imaging findings of valvular and perivalvular
complications. Topics include technique tips specific to valve imaging with cardiac-gated
CTA, potential benefits of cardiac-gated CTA compared with other imaging modalities
such as echocardiography, limitations of imaging patients with IE with cardiac-gated
CTA, and an overview of potential findings in patients with IE, including vegetations,
valve perforations, perivalvular abscesses, perivalvular pseudoaneurysms, and fistulas.
Throughout this review, cardiac-gated CTA findings of IE are presented with echocardiographic
and operative correlation to emphasize that cardiac-gated CTA may in select cases
provide incremental benefit in the preoperative assessment of patients with IE.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 16, 2012
Accepted:
October 4,
2012
Received:
August 15,
2012
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
