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Updated: Jan 22, 2026

Identifying Coronary Artery Calcification on Non-gated Computed Tomography Scans
Published on: August 28, 2018
The use of computed tomography for penetrating heart injury screening
Adenauer Marinho de Oliveira Góes Junior1,2,3, Édpo Vinicius Lenzi de Oliveira4, Flávia Beatriz Araújo de Albuquerque2
1Hospital Metropolitano de Urgência e Emergência, Serviço de Cirurgia Vascular/ Cirurgia do Trauma, Ananindeua, PA, Brasil.
Objective:
to determine if computed tomography represents a safe option for penetrating heart injury screening.
Methods:
retrospective transversal study which confronted tomographic findings with the ones detected in surgical exploration in patients that had undergone surgery because of suspected cardiac trauma from January, 2016 to January, 2018.
Results:
seventy-two cases were analysed; 97.2% of them were males, and the most prevalent age range was 20 to 29 years; 56.9% of them presented injuries caused by firearm shots and 43.1% by cutting weapons. In 20 cases, computed tomography suggested heart injury, confirmed in 13 cases during surgery. Sensitivity of computed tomography was 56.5%, reaching a specificity of 85.7%.
Conclusion:
computed tomography must not be adopted as a routine for the screening of penetrating heart injuries.
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