Post-processing in cardiovascular computed tomography: performance of a client server solution versus a stand-alone...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular imaging
• Medical imaging analysis
• Radiology workflow optimization

Background:

• Cardiovascular CT (cvCT) examinations require efficient post-processing for accurate diagnosis.
• Evaluating the performance of different software solutions is crucial for optimizing clinical workflows.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the performance of server-based (CSS) versus stand-alone post-processing software (ES) for cvCT.
• To identify critical steps influencing evaluation efficiency and quality.

Main Methods:

• 40 patients underwent cvCT analysis using both CSS and ES by 5 radiologists.
• Evaluated workflow steps included data loading, segmentation, multiplanar reconstruction, and 3D rendering.
• Time requirements and subjective quality were assessed.

Main Results:

• CSS significantly reduced evaluation time for coronary arteries (5.5 min vs. 13.9 min) and TAVI data (8.2 min vs. 15.2 min) compared to ES (p ≤ 0.01).
• CSS demonstrated superior speed and quality in aorta segmentation, coronary MPR generation, and 3D-VRT.
• Key workflow steps like segmentation were faster with CSS.

Conclusions:

• Server-based software (CSS) offers significantly faster and better performance for cvCT evaluations than stand-alone software (ES).
• Segmentation remains the most time-intensive step, highlighting the need for optimized segmentation algorithms to further improve efficiency.