Could Spectral CT Have a Potential Benefit in Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)?

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential benefit of spectral imaging, notably electron density imaging, in patients with suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19), by retrospectively reviewing the cases of four patients who each underwent two chest CT scans for confirmed COVID-19. The use of spectral CT with electron density imaging could improve the assessment of lung lesion extent in patients with early-stage COVID-19.

[Cardiac CT and MRI in acute coronary syndrome].

Acute coronary syndrome, with an estimated prevalence of 300 000 cases annually in France, is one of the principal diagnostic and therapeutic emergencies in atheroma. In cases of atypical chest pain, with or without signs of severity, coronary, aortic and pulmonary CT should allow emergency specialists to rule out rapidly diagnoses of coronary disease, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection or other chest conditions. Should acute coronary syndrome develop after immediate therapeutic management, a cardiac MRI will provide the cardiologist with the additional data necessary to assess the patient's prognosis--especially by assessing myocardial viability--and decide on subsequent management.

Acute myocardial infarction early viability assessment by 64-slice computed tomography immediately after coronary angiography: comparison with low-dose dobutamine echocardiography.

Objectives: Early evaluation of myocardial viability in acute myocardial infarction is useful to guide therapy. Therefore, we assessed 64-slice computed tomography (CT) immediately after coronary angiography in this setting.

Background: Recent preliminary studies have shown the promising usefulness of late hyperenhancement multislice computed tomography (MSCT) for non-viability assessment.

Non-invasive detection of coronary artery disease in patients with left bundle branch block using 64-slice computed tomography.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 64-slice computed tomography (CT) to identify coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with complete left bundle branch block (LBBB).

Background: Left bundle branch block increases risk of cardiac mortality, and prognosis is primarily determined by the underlying coronary disease. Non-invasive stress tests have limited performance, and conventional coronary angiography (CCA) is usually required.

Comparison of coronary minimal lumen area quantification by sixty-four-slice computed tomography versus intravascular ultrasound for intermediate stenosis.

The present study assessed 64-slice computed tomographic accuracy to quantify minimal lumen area (MLA) and determine lesion severity in intermediate stenosis by angiography compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Sixty-four-slice computed tomography (CT) has been shown to be effective in coronary stenotic assessment by visual estimation compared with angiography. However, angiography is not an accurate gold standard for intermediate stenotic quantification compared with IVUS.

MDCT of the coronary arteries: feasibility of low-dose CT with ECG-pulsed tube current modulation to reduce radiation dose.

Objective: The objective of our study was to show the feasibility of coronary CT using low kilovoltage (80 kV) combined with ECG-pulsed tube current modulation in selected patients.

Conclusion: This study showed the combined effect of lowering the kilovoltage setting (80 kV) and using an automatic modulation technique (ECG-pulsed tube current modulation) for coronary CT. Radiation dose exposure can be reduced by up to 88% for slim patients without impairing image quality.

Comparison of lumens of intermediate coronary stenosis using 16-slice computed tomography versus intravascular ultrasound.

We aimed to quantify ambiguous coronary stenosis using the minimal lumen area with 16-slice computed tomography compared with intravascular ultrasound. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for significant lesion classification was 68%, 86%, and 78%, respectively. The correlation between intravascular ultrasound and CT minimal lumen area was r = 0.