Application of Double Flash Scanning in Patients with Coronary Artery Stent / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To explore the image quality, radiation dose and diagnostic accuracy of double flash scanning mode in patients with coronary artery stent. Materials and Methods Sixty-three patients with coronary stents underwent CT coronary artery imaging using conventional coronary artery angiography as the gold standard. Double flash mode was used in patients with heart rate ≤ 70 beats per minute. Spiral scanning was used in patients with heart rate between 70-100 beats per minute. The image quality, vascular CT value, noise, SNR and CNR were compared. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were determined, and the radiation dose was calculated. Results There were 59 stents in Double flash group (57 were diagnostic) and 58 stents in spiral group (all diagnostic). There was no statistically significant difference in image quality, CT value, noise, SNR or CNR for the first scan between two groups (P>0.05). Image quality for the second scan in Double flash group showed statistical difference with the first scan and spiral group (P<0.05). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of Double flash and spiral group were 90.0%, 89.8%, 64.3%, 97.8%, 89.8% and 83.3%, 95.7%, 83.3%, 95.7% 93.1%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy for stents with diameter ≥ 3.0 mm were significantly higher than stents with diameter <3.0 mm. The radiation doses of Double flash group were significantly lower than the spiral group (P<0.05). Conclusion Double Flash mode scanning provides good image quality and diagnostic accuracy with lower radiation dose in patients with coronary artery stents. Imaging of stents with diameter ≥ 3.0 mm is superior to stents with diameter <3.0 mm.