Effect of snapshot freeze motion correction algorithm on image quality of coronary CT angiography without heart rate control / 中华放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To assess the effect of snapshot freeze (SSF) motion correction algorithm on the image quality of coronary CT angiography (CCTA).Methods Thirty-one consecutive patients underwent coronary CTA without heart rate control.All of the CCTA images were reconstructed by the means of both standard (STD) and SSF motion correction.Image quality and interpretability of STD and SSF reconstructions were compared.CCTA images were interpreted with Likert 4-points score system by two experienced radiologists.The image qualities were assessed on per-artery and per-segment level,and interpretability was performed on per-segment,per-artery,and per-patient levels.Comparisons of variables were performed with paired Wilcoxon rank sum test and paired Chi-square test.Results SSF reconstructions showed higher interpretability than STD reconstructions on per-patient [100.0％ (31/31) vs 64.5％ (20/31),x2 =9.09,P =0.002] and per-artery [100.0％ (124/124) v s 83.9％ (104/124),x2 =18.05,P =0.001] and per-segment level [99.0％ (413/417) vs 89.2％ (372/417),x2 =35.56,P =0.001].Image qualities were higher with the use of SSF than STD reconstructions on LAD [3.3 ± 0.7 vs 2.9 ± 1.0,Z =2.70,P=0.007],LCX [3.1 ±0.8 vs 2.5 ± 1.1,Z =3.23,P =0.001] and RCA [3.3 ±0.6 vs 2.1 ±0.9,Z =4.60,P =0.001],but they were similar on LM [3.9 ± 0.4 vs 3.7 ± 0.6,Z =1.89,P =0.059].Image quality was higher with the use of SSF versus STD reconstructions on per-segment [3.5 ± 0.7 vs 3.0 ± 1.0,Z =10.31,P =0.001] level.Conclusions The use of SSF motion correction algorithm improves image quality and interpretability of coronary CTA without heart rate control.