[Diagnostic validity of coronary angiotomography]

Coronary arterial disease is the main cause of morbidity in western countries and coronary angiography is the most important diagnosis test. Lately, coronary angiotomography has been introduced for studying coronary arteries in a non-invasive way. Our goal was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of coronary angiotomography in the diagnosis of coronary arterial disease.

Cross-sectional study for assessing diagnostic test comparing coronary angiotomography to invasive angiography in patients without previous coronary disease. All the patients underwent both tests consecutively in a blind way. Coronary arteries were studied according to the modified reference model of coronary segmentary analysis of the American Heart Association. Tomography validity indexes (sensitivity, specificity, positive--PPV--and negative--NPV--predictive values and global value) by patient, artery, and segment were calculated.

We studied 121 patients (47 females--38.8%--and 74 males--61.2%-). Prevalence of coronary arterial disease was 38%. The most frequent risk factor detected was hypertension. We obtained a 100% sensitivity and NPV studying patients as a whole by patient, a specificity of 92% (95% CI: 86.0-99.0) and a global value of 94% (95% CI: 89.0-99.0). The higher validity by artery was for anterior descending artery with a specificity of 98% (CI95%: 90.0-96.0) and NPV of 97% (IC95%: 96.0-100). The segment with higher validity was distal right coronary artery with 100% specificity and PPV.

A high diagnostic validity of coronary angiotomography was obtained and it could be considered as another diagnostic test for studying coronary arterial disease.