Assessment of coronary stent lumen visibility and patency by 64-slice spiral CT angiography / 中国医学科学院学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the clinical value of assessment of coronary stent patency by 64-slice spiral CT coronary angiography.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Totally 29 patients (59 stents) were investigated using a retrospective ECG-gated enhanced scan by 64-slice spiral CT at a mean interval of (28.4 +/- 21.2) months after coronary stent implantation. Axial multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) of the stents and curved-planar reconstruction (CPR) through the stents were evaluated for image quality on a 5-point scale (1 = excellent, 5 = uninterpretable) and lumen diameter. Stent lumen diameter was compared with the vessel diameter proximal of the stents to assess the in-stent lumen visibility. Conventional coronary angiography was performed in 5 patients, and 9 stents were evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The image quality was good to excellent on average (scores 1.94 +/- 0.84), depending on heart rate, breath movement, and stent location. Stent lumen was visible, on average a percentage off (76.1 +/- 11.1)% of the lumen diameter. All the 9 stents were correctly detected as being patent, which was confirmed by conventional coronary angiography.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>64-slice spiral CT is a useful tool to assess the coronary stent patency.</p>