Coronary artery calcium scoring on non-gated, non-contrast chest computed tomography (CT) using wide-detector, high-pitch and fast gantry rotation: comparison with dedicated calcium scoring CT

Abstract

Background: Our study assessed the reliability of non-gated, non-contrast chest computed tomography (NCCT) (with high pitch, wide coverage, and fast gantry rotation time, reconstructed at various slice thicknesses), compared with the electrocardiography (ECG)-gated calcium scoring cardiac computed tomography (CaCT), for quantifying coronary artery calcification (CAC).

Methods: Patients aged ≥50 years who required clinical NCCT were prospectively enrolled. All CT scans were performed with 256-detector rows; z-axis coverage, 8 cm; pitch, 1.5; and gantry rotation time, 280 ms (table feed, 42.86 cm/s). NCCT was followed by ECG-gated CaCT. The NCCT images were reconstructed at 0.625-, 1.25-, and 2.5-mm slice intervals. The CAC score was calculated on four sets of CT images with a commercially available software using the Agatston method. The CAC scores were divided into four standard Agatston scoring categories (Agatston scores: 0, 1-100, 101-400, and >400). The inter-observer and inter-technique agreements were evaluated for the CAC scores.

Results: Twenty-six patients (M:F, 14:12; mean age, 66.04±6.97 years) were evaluated. Agatston scores showed near-perfect correlation between CaCT and NCCT for each slice thickness. On Bland-Altman analysis, the mean differences of Agatston scores between CaCT and NCCT (slice thicknesses: 0.625, 1.25, and 2.5 mm) were 37.54, 6.67, and -41.04, respectively. Inter-technique concordance was high for the four Agatston scoring categories with linear-weighted kappa values of 0.599, 0.609, and 0.597 for NCCT (slice thicknesses: 0.625, 1.25, and 2.5 mm, respectively). NCCT with 1.25-mm slice thickness showed the strongest correlation with CaCT.

Conclusions: CAC quantification with NCCT using a wide detector, high pitch, and high temporal resolution scanning modes correlates very highly with ECG-gated CaCT, and 1.25-mm slice thickness NCCT images are more reliable than other NCCT images.