[Pre- and postsurgical diagnostics with dual-source computed tomography in cardiac surgery]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical potential of dual-source computed tomography (DSCT) in pre- and postsurgical diagnostics in the field of cardiac surgery.

A total of 20 patients underwent DSCT of the heart. This CT system with two rotating X-ray tubes (Somatom Definition, Siemens Medical Solutions, Forchheim, Germany) achieves a temporal resolution of 83 ms and a spatial resolution of 0.4 x 0.4 x 0.4 mm. The patient cohort consisted of two subgroups. In a group of ten patients with known coronary artery disease (CAD), scheduled for bypass surgery (i.e., high pretest likelihood for having significant CAD), the results of DSCT coronary angiography (CTA) and invasive quantitative catheter angiography (QCA) were compared to assess the diagnostic accuracy of DSCT in the detection of significant coronary artery stenoses (>50%). In a second group of ten patients with previous aortic valve replacement (homografts), the valve opening area of the transplanted aortic valve graft was measured by DSCT and compared with echocardiography as a standard of reference to exclude postsurgical restenosis of the valve.

Of 150 coronary artery segments depicted by CT, 144 (96%) were classified as "assessable." A significant CAD was known in all patients, and altogether 43 significant stenoses were present according to the results of QCA. Blinded to these results, DSCTA reached a sensitivity and specificity of 95% (41/43) and 93% (103/111), yielding a positive and negative predictive value (PPV, NPV) of 79% (31/39) and 98% (103/105), respectively. In patients with aortic valve homografts, all DSCT datasets were considered as being of diagnostic image quality concerning valve depiction. The planimetric evaluation of the CT data as compared to results of echocardiography showed a significant correlation of the results (r=0.64, p=0.0467). A high-grade valve stenosis (opening area <1.0 cm(2)) could be correctly excluded by DSCT in all patients.

Dual-source CT shows great diagnostic potential in patients before or after cardiac surgery. DSCT provides a high diagnostic accuracy for detection of coronary artery stenosis before bypass surgery. DSCT also proved to be accurate in the assessment of patients who received aortic valve replacement.