ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The importance of coronary computerized tomography angiography (CCTA) in detecting native coronary artery stenosis has been established. However, very few studies investigated the efficacy of CCTA in the assessment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) in symptomatic patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the value of CCTA in diagnosing ISR. METHODS: We included 102 symptomatic patients with stable angina, presented one to five years after PCI. All patients were subjected to CCTA, and the patients with significant coronary artery disease were directed for invasive coronary angiography (ICA). CCTA results were compared to ICA as the gold standard tool for detecting ISR. RESULTS: In 88 (86.3 %) patients, CCTA could successfully exclude ISR together with the ICA (true negative), but in two cases, ICA detected an ISR which was not detected by CCTA (false negative). In eight patients, CCTA detected ISR. These were confirmed by ICA (true positive) and revascularized. In four patients (3.9 %), ISR was suspected by CCTA but excluded by ICA (false positive). In our study, according to the agreement of CCTA in detection or exclusion of ISR, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy were 80.0 %, 96.65 %, 66.67 %, 97.78 %, 94.12 %, respectively. These results were statistically significant (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In up to 86 % of symptomatic patients with previous PCI, ISR was accurately excluded by CCTA. CCTA was demonstrated by this study as a high yielding tool for ruling out ISR, abolishing the need for more invasive and expensive diagnostic procedures.
