Search

In this international, multicenter study, using third-generation dual-source computed tomography (CT), we investigated the diagnostic performance of dynamic stress CT myocardial perfusion imaging (CT-MPI) in addition to coronary CT angiography (CTA) compared to invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR). CT-MPI combined with coronary CTA integrates coronary artery anatomy with inducible myocardial ischemia, showing promising results for the diagnosis of hemodynamically significant coronary artery disease in single-center studies. At 9 centers in Europe, Japan, and the United States, 132 patients scheduled for ICA were enrolled; 114 patients successfully completed coronary CTA, adenosine-stress dynamic CT-MPI, and ICA. Invasive FFR was performed in vessels with 25% to 90% stenosis. Data were analyzed by independent core laboratories. For the primary analysis, for each coronary artery the presence of hemodynamically significant obstruction was interpreted by coronary CTA with CT-MPI compared to coronary CTA alone, using an FFR of ≤0.80 and angiographic severity as reference. Territorial absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF) and relative MBF were compared using C-statistics. ICA and FFR identified hemodynamically significant stenoses in 74 of 289 coronary vessels (26%). Coronary CTA with ≥50% stenosis demonstrated a per-vessel sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for the detection of hemodynamically significant stenosis of 96% (95% CI: 91%-100%), 72% (95% CI: 66%-78%), and 78% (95% CI: 73%-83%), respectively. Coronary CTA with CT-MPI showed a lower sensitivity (84%; 95% CI: 75%-92%) but higher specificity (89%; 95% CI: 85%-93%) and accuracy (88%; 95% CI: 84%-92%). The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of absolute MBF and relative MBF were 0.79 (95% CI: 0.71-0.86) and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.74-0.88), respectively. The median dose-length product of CT-MPI and coronary CTA were 313 mGy·cm and 138 mGy·cm, respectively. Dynamic CT-MPI offers incremental diagnostic value over coronary CTA alone for the identification of hemodynamically significant coronary artery disease. Generalized results from this multicenter study encourage broader consideration of dynamic CT-MPI in clinical practice. (Dynamic Stress Perfusion CT for Detection of Inducible Myocardial Ischemia [SPECIFIC]; NCT02810795) [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR), coronary CT angiography (cCTA) is limited in detecting hemodynamically relevant lesions. cCTA-based FFR (CT-FFR) is an approach to overcome this insufficiency by use of computational fluid dynamics. Applying recent innovations in computer science, a machine learning (ML) method for CT-FFR derivation was introduced and showed improved diagnostic performance compared to cCTA alone. We sought to investigate the influence of stenosis location in the coronary artery system on the performance of ML-CT-FFR in a large, multicenter cohort. Three hundred and thirty patients (75.2% male, median age 63 years) with 502 coronary artery stenoses were included in this substudy of the MACHINE (Machine Learning Based CT Angiography Derived FFR: A Multi-Center Registry) registry. Correlation of ML-CT-FFR with the invasive reference standard FFR was assessed and pooled diagnostic performance of ML-CT-FFR and cCTA was determined separately for the following stenosis locations: RCA, LAD, LCX, proximal, middle, and distal vessel segments. ML-CT-FFR correlated well with invasive FFR across the different stenosis locations. Per-lesion analysis revealed improved diagnostic accuracy of ML-CT-FFR compared with conventional cCTA for stenoses in the RCA (71.8% [95% confidence interval, 63.0%–79.5%] vs. 54.8% [45.7%–63.8%]), LAD (79.3 [73.9–84.0] vs. 59.6 [53.5–65.6]), LCX (84.1 [76.0–90.3] vs. 63.7 [54.1–72.6]), proximal (81.5 [74.6–87.1] vs. 63.8 [55.9–71.2]), middle (81.2 [75.7–85.9] vs. 59.4 [53.0–65.6]) and distal stenosis location (67.4 [57.0–76.6] vs. 51.6 [41.1–62.0]). In a multicenter cohort with high disease prevalence, ML-CT-FFR offered improved diagnostic performance over cCTA for detecting hemodynamically relevant stenoses regardless of their location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Myocardial blood flow ( MBF) obtained by dynamic CT perfusion ( CTP) has been recently introduced to assess hemodynamic significance of coronary stenosis in coronary artery disease. The diagnostic performance of dynamic CTP MBF is limited due to subjective interpretation of MBF maps and MBF variations caused by physiological, methodological, and technical issues. In this paper, we introduce a novel method to quantify the hypoperfused volume ( HPV) in myocardial territories derived from CT angiography ( CTA) to overcome the limitations of current dynamic CTP MBF analysis methods. Methods The diagnostic performance of HPV in classifying significant stenoses was evaluated on 22 patients (57 vessels) that underwent CTA, CTP and invasive fractional flow reserve ( FFR). FFR was used as the standard of reference to determine stenosis significance. The diagnostic performance was compared to that of the mean MBF computed in regions manually annotated by an expert ( MA- MBF). HPV was derived by thresholding the MBF in myocardial territories constructed from CTA by locating the closest artery. Diagnostic performance was evaluated using leave-one-case out cross-validation. Inter-observer reproducibility was assessed by performing annotations of coronary seeds ( HPV) and manual regions ( MA- MBF) with two users. In addition, the influence of different parameter settings on the diagnostic performance of HPV was assessed. Results Leave-one-case out cross-validation showed that HPV has an accuracy of 72% (58-83%) with sensitivity of 72% (47-90%) and specificity of 72% (58-83%). The accuracy of MA- MBF was 70% (57-82%) with a sensitivity of 50% (26-74%) and a specificity of 79% (64-91%). The Spearman correlation and the kappa statistic was ( ρ = 0.94, κ = 0.86) for HPV and ( ρ = 0.72, κ = 0.82) for MA- MBF. The influence of parameter settings on HPV based diagnostic performance was not significant. Conclusions The proposed HPV accurately classifies hemodynamically significant stenoses with a level of accuracy comparable to the mean MBF in regions annotated by an expert. HPV improves inter-observer reproducibility as compared to MA- MBF by providing a more objective criterion to associate the stenotic coronary with the supplied myocardial territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Recently several publications described the diagnostic value of coronary CT angiography (coronary CTA) derived fractional flow reserve (CTA-FFR). For a recently introduced on-site CTA-FFR application, detailed methodology and factors potentially affecting performance have not yet been described. Objective To provide a methodological background for an on-site CTA-FFR application and evaluate the effect of patient and acquisition characteristics. Methods The on-site CTA-FFR application utilized a reduced-order hybrid model applying pressure drop models within stenotic regions. In 116 patients and 203 vessels the diagnostic performance of CTA-FFR was investigated using invasive FFR measurements as a reference. The effect of several potentially relevant factors on CTA-FFR was investigated. Results 90 vessels (44%) had a hemodynamically relevant stenosis according to invasive FFR (threshold ≤0.80). The overall vessel-based sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of CTA-FFR were 88% (CI 95%:79–94%), 65% (55–73%) and 75% (69–81%). The specificity was significantly lower in the presence of misalignment artifacts (25%, CI: 6–57%). A non-significant reduction in specificity from 74% (60–85%) to 48% (26–70%) was found for higher coronary artery calcium scores. Left ventricular mass, diabetes mellitus and large vessel size increased the discrepancy between invasive FFR and CTA-FFR values. Conclusions On-site calculation of CTA-FFR can identify hemodynamically significant CAD with an overall per-vessel accuracy of 75% in comparison to invasive FFR. The diagnostic performance of CTA-FFR is negatively affected by misalignment artifacts. CTA-FFR is potentially affected by left ventricular mass, diabetes mellitus and vessel size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of gender differences on the diagnostic performance of machine-learning based coronary CT angiography (cCTA)-derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFRML) for the detection of lesion-specific ischemia.Method: Five centers enrolled 351 patients (73.5% male) with 525 vessels in the MACHINE (Machine leArning Based CT angiograpHy derIved FFR: a Multi-ceNtEr) registry. CT-FFRML and invasive FFR ≤ 0.80 were considered hemodynamically significant, whereas cCTA luminal stenosis ≥50% was considered obstructive. The diagnostic performance to assess lesion-specific ischemia in both men and women was assessed on a per-vessel basis.Results: In total, 398 vessels in men and 127 vessels in women were included. Compared to invasive FFR, CT-FFRML reached a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 78% (95%CI 72-84), 79% (95%CI 73-84), 75% (95%CI 69-79), and 82% (95%CI: 76-86) in men vs. 75% (95%CI 58-88), 81 (95%CI 72-89), 61% (95%CI 50-72) and 89% (95%CI 82-94) in women, respectively. CT-FFRML showed no statistically significant difference in the area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) in men vs. women (AUC: 0.83 [95%CI 0.79-0.87] vs. 0.83 [95%CI 0.75-0.89], p = 0.89). CT-FFRML was not superior to cCTA alone [AUC: 0.83 (95%CI: 0.75-0.89) vs. 0.74 (95%CI: 0.65-0.81), p = 0.12] in women, but showed a statistically significant improvement in men [0.83 (95%CI: 0.79-0.87) vs. 0.76 (95%CI: 0.71-0.80), p = 0.007].Conclusions: Machine-learning based CT-FFR performs equally in men and women with superior diagnostic performance over cCTA alone for the detection of lesion-specific ischemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]