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Extracardiac findings on coronary computed tomography angiography in patients without significant coronary artery disease

  • Cardiac
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Abstract

Objective

To analyse extracardiac findings in patients without significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in general and in symptomatic patients in particular.

Methods

We searched the Radiology Information System database for coronary computed tomography angiographies (CTA) performed from 2000−2014 and retrospectively enrolled 3,898 patients without significant CAD (coronary stenosis < 50%) in CTA. In 2,330 symptomatic patients, we analysed the spectrum of extracardiac findings and identified pathologies potentially explaining chest pain. Finally, we investigated variables affecting the number of extracardiac findings detected in CTA.

Results

Overall extracardiac findings were found in 1,177 patients (30.2%; 95%CI, 28.8−31.7%). 94 patients (2.4%; 95%CI, 2.0−2.9%) had extracardiac findings with a recommendation for follow-up, sixteen patients (0.4%; 95%CI, 0.3−0.7%) had incidental urgent, and another three patients (0.1%; 95%CI, 0.1−0.2%) had incidental malignant extracardiac findings. 185 of 2,330 symptomatic patients (7.9%; 95%CI, 6.9−9.1%) revealed extracardiac findings potentially explaining chest pain after exclusion of significant CAD. The number of extracardiac findings increased significantly with patient age (p < 0.001) and the cumulative experience of the CT reader (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

30.2% of patients undergoing CTA for exclusion of CAD had ECF, and 7.9% of symptomatic patients without significant CAD on their examination had findings that could potentially explain their symptoms.

Key Points

• Of patients undergoing CTA, 2.8% have relevant incidental extracardiac findings.

• CTA could identify the differential diagnosis of chest pain when excluding significant CAD.

• Patient age and reader’s professional experience influence the number of detected ECFs.

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Abbreviations

CAD:

Coronary artery disease

CTA:

Coronary computed tomography angiography

ECF:

Extracardiac finding

ECG:

Electrocardiogram

FOV:

Field of view

MDCT:

Multiple-detector computed tomography

NCCP:

Noncardiac chest pain

PET:

Positron emission tomography

RIS:

Radiology Information System

SPECT:

Single-photon emission computed tomography

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Funding

Prof. Dewey has received grant support from the Heisenberg Program of the DFG for a professorship (DE 1361/14-1).

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Correspondence to Marc Dewey.

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Guarantor

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Prof. Dr. Marc Dewey

Conflict of interest

The authors of this manuscript declare relationships with the following companies:

Prof. Dewey has received grant support from the Heisenberg Program of the DFG for a professorship (DE 1361/14-1), the FP7 Program of the European Commission for the randomized multicentre DISCHARGE trial (603266-2, HEALTH-2012.2.4.-2), the European Regional Development Fund (20072013 2/05, 20072013 2/48), the German Heart Foundation/German Foundation of Heart Research (F/23/08, F/27/10), the Joint Program from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for meta-analyses (01KG1013, 01KG1110, 01KG1210), GE Healthcare, Bracco, Guerbet, and Toshiba Medical Systems.

Prof. Dewey has received lecture fees from Toshiba Medical Systems, Guerbet, Cardiac MR Academy Berlin, and Bayer (Schering-Berlex).

Prof. Dewey is a consultant to Guerbet and one of the principal investigators of multicentre studies (CORE-64 and 320) on coronary CT angiography sponsored by Toshiba Medical Systems. He is also the editor of Coronary CT Angiography and Cardiac CT, both published by Springer, and offers hands-on workshops on cardiovascular imaging (www.ct-kurs.de). Prof. Dewey is a consultant to the editor of Radiology and an associate editor of European Radiology. Institutional master research agreements exist with Siemens Medical Solutions, Philips Medical Systems, and Toshiba Medical Systems. The terms of these arrangements are managed by the legal department of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hamm has received research grants from GE Healthcare, Schering, Siemens Medical Solutions, and Toshiba Medical Systems. Speakers Bureau: Siemens Medical Solutions and Schering.

Statistics and biometry

One of the authors has significant statistical expertise.

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Written informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

Methodology

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Karius, P., Lembcke, A., Sokolowski, F.C. et al. Extracardiac findings on coronary computed tomography angiography in patients without significant coronary artery disease. Eur Radiol 29, 1714–1723 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5688-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5688-4

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