Abstract

The present study is designed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of dual-source computed tomography (CT) in the detection of coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO). Dual-source CT diagnosed 149 patients with 258 significant coronary artery lesions including CTOs. The diagnosis was redecided by subsequent invasive coronary angiography (ICA). Eighty seven CTOs were finally identified by ICA. Dual-source CT correctly detected 84 of these 87 occlusions, but falsely diagnosed 9 severe stenosis lesions as CTOs. Calcification had an influence on the accuracy of CTO detection. Our findings indicated that dual-source CT had a good ability to detect CTOs, in spite of a slight bias towards overestimating the stenosis degree, especially when there was severe calcification.

Key words: Dual-source computed tomography, invasive coronary angiography, coronary chronic total occlusion.

Abbreviation

Abbreviations: CT, Computed tomography; CTO, chronic total occlusion; ICA,invasive coronary angiography; ROI, region of interest; RCA, right coronary artery;LM, left main; LAD, left anterior descending; LCX, left circumflex; ECG,electrocardiogram; PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention; PPV,  positive predictive value; NPV, negative predictive value.