Application of low kilovoltage combined with sinogram affirmed iterative reconstruction in assessment of calcified plaque in coronary artery / 实用医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the performance of dual source CT scanning combined with low-tube-voltage iterative reconstruction (SAFIRE) for demonstrating coronary artery calcium plaques. Methods 70 patients with clinically suspected coronary atherosclerosis and with normal BMI received SAFIRE-3 or filtered back projection (FBP) for reconstruction after undergoing CT scans with tube voltage range of 100 kV. The CT images (average CT values, noise, SNR, and CNR) and subjective scores (number of calcium plaque, calcium plaque adjacent artifacts, and image quality) were compared between the two groups. Results The average CT value of the aortic root did not differ significantly between the two procedures for reconstruction (P > 0.05). Ob jective evaluation of the images (noise, SNR, and CNR) between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05 for all comparisons), so was image subjective rating (number of calcium plaque and rate of calcium plaque edge)(P < 0.05 for all comparisons). SAFIRE-3 reconstruction was markedly superior to FBP reconstruc-tion. Conclusions Low kilovoltage combined with reconstruction of SAFIRE-3 can reduce calcium plaque adja-cent artifacts and enhance quality of images , which is better than FBP in displaying the morphology and adjacent conditions of calcified plaque; therefore it is worth popularizing.