Overlapping cross-sections significantly improve the reproducibility of coronary calcium measurements by electron...

We conducted phantom studies to investigate whether overlapping cross-sections and volumetric scoring would significantly improve interscan reproducibility of electron beam tomography (EBT) for coronary artery calcium quantification.

Fifteen phantoms simulating various amounts of coronary calcification were scanned in five different positions with a slice thickness of 3.0 mm and a table feed of 3.0, 2.5, and 2.0 mm. For the conventional "Agatston score" and a "volume score" (total volume of calcified lesions), interscan variabilities were compared between the three image acquisition protocols.

Agatston score variability was significantly lower for the 2.0 mm table feed than for the 3.0 or 2.5 mm table feed (3.0 mm: 22.9 +/- 10.3%; 2.5 mm: 13.6 +/- 8.2%; 2.0 mm: 8.9 +/- 5.5%). Volume score variability was significantly lower for 2.5 and 2.0 mm table feed than for 3.0 mm table feed (3.0 mm: 21.7 +/- 11.0%; 2.5 mm: 10.9 +/- 5.9%; 2.0 mm: 9.8 +/- 5.9%).

Overlapping cross-sections, especially in combination with volumetric scoring, significantly improved interscan reproducibility of EBT calcium quantification in a phantom study.