Diagnostic accuracy of lower-dose cardiac CT in evaluating young infants with non-coronary complex congenital heart disease on a 64-slice multidetector CT scanner

• Published in: Acta radiologica (1987) Vol. 64; no. 5; p. 2024
• Main Authors: Sakrana, Amal Abdelsattar, Alharbi, Ibraheem H, Elmokadem, Ali H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01.05.2023
• Subjects: Cardiac-Gated Imaging Techniques - methods; Coronary Angiography - methods; Electrocardiography; Heart Defects, Congenital - diagnostic imaging; Humans; Infant; Multidetector Computed Tomography - methods; Prospective Studies; Radiation Dosage; Retrospective Studies; congenital heart disease; non-ECG-gated; infants; radiation dose; Cardiovascular; cardiac computed tomography
• ISSN: 1600-0455
• DOI: 10.1177/02841851221139672

Redoable precise and non-invasive diagnostic imaging modality with the least radiation dose is essential for infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) . To investigate the accuracy and estimate the radiation dose of our cardiac computed tomography (CCT) protocol. A total of 82 infants with CHD underwent non-ECG-gated CCT without contrast timing scanning techniques and were retrospectively studied. The image quality and radiation dose were estimated. The radiation dose was compared statistically to virtual retrospective ECG-gated and prospective ECG-triggering scanning modes. The diagnostic accuracy was assessed assuming the surgical results as the diagnostic gold standard. Most exams showed a high quality with low radiation doses compared to previous studies. The mean effective dose (ED) was 0.39 ± 1.2, significantly lower than that of the virtual retrospective ECG-gated and prospective ECG-triggering scanning and lower than in previous studies. Our CCT protocol has achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 99.52% with a sensitivity of 94.83% and specificity of 99.91%. Non-ECG-gated CCT without contrast timing techniques can detect the non-coronary cardiovascular defects of CHD in infants with an ultralow radiation dose and a high diagnostic accuracy.