Mulitmedia Library
The effect of patient and imaging characteristics on coronary CT angiography assessed pericoronary adipose tissue attenuation and gradient
Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) markers are promising indicators of inflammation.Follow-up assessment of myocardial calcification secondary to fulminant myocarditis with computed tomography
A 16-year-old man underwent venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) therapy due to hemodynamic collapse caused by viral fulminant myocarditis. Supplementary Figure 1 presents the time course of treatment. High-density areas wtihin the myocardium were initially detected by computed tomography (CT) 10 days after admission which was not observed on admission (Fig. 1A). The CT tissue attenuation value reached 106 Hounsfield Unit (HU) in these areas 40 days after admission (Fig. 1B), with changes in the left lateral wall being more evident than other areas.Perivascular fat attenuation for predicting adverse cardiac events in stable patients undergoing invasive coronary angiography
Inflammation surrounding the coronary arteries can be non-invasively assessed using pericoronary adipose tissue attenuation (PCAT). While PCAT holds promise for further risk stratification of patients with low coronary artery disease (CAD) prevalence, its value in higher risk populations remains unknown.Are risk factors necessary for pretest probability assessment of coronary artery disease? A patient similarity network analysis of the PROMISE trial
Pretest probability (PTP) calculators utilize epidemiological-level findings to provide patient-level risk assessment of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). However, their limited accuracies question whether dissimilarities in risk factors necessarily result in differences in CAD. Using patient similarity network (PSN) analyses, we wished to assess the accuracy of risk factors and imaging markers to identify ≥50% luminal narrowing on coronary CT angiography (CCTA) in stable chest-pain patients.Detection of small coronary calcifications in patients with Agatston coronary artery calcium score of zero
The conventional Agatston coronary artery calcium score (CACS) method may fail to detect very small or less dense calcified plaques; smaller than 3 continuous pixels (1 mm2) or with a density lower than 130 Hounsfield Units (HU). A significant proportion of patients classified as CACS = 0, could potentially be reclassified as >0 by altering these thresholds. The increased sensitivity with lower HU threshold comes at a cost of reduced specificity by introducing false positive (noise) cases. Modifying the threshold to <1 mm 2 and HU > 120, allows 12.1% of patients with CACS = 0 to be reclassified as CACS> 0 while introducing only 0.9% of noise.CT assessment of the left atrial appendage post-transcatheter occlusion – A systematic review and meta analysis
Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is the standard imaging modality used to assess the left atrial appendage (LAA) after transcatheter device occlusion. Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) offers an alternative non-invasive modality in these patients. We aimed to conduct a comparison of the two modalities.Predictive value of the coronary artery calcium score and advanced plaque characteristics: Post hoc analysis of the PREDICT registry
Whether coronary plaque characteristics assessed in coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in association with the coronary artery calcium score (CACS) have predictive value for coronary events is unclear. We aimed to examine the predictive value of the CACS and plaque characteristics for the occurrence of coronary events.
