Clinical experience regarding the diagnostic value of segment-by-segment coronary computed tomography angiography in comparison with that of invasive coronary angiography.

Objective: To compare the degree of coronary stenosis (≥ 50% luminal narrowing) determined by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with that determined by invasive coronary angiography (ICA), using segment-by-segment analysis.

Materials And Methods: This was a retrospective study of the records of patients who underwent CCTA and ICA between January 2014 and June 2018 at a general hospital in Brazil. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was applied, and the areas under the curve were used in order to assess the overall accuracy of the methods.

Left Ventricular Structure, Tissue Composition, and Aortic Distensibility in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Intervention and Complications.

Alterations in myocardial structure, function, tissue composition (e.g., fibrosis) may be associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS).

Computed tomography angiography of the coronary arteries: major findings in the clinical routine of a general hospital.

Almost two decades ago, it became possible to use coronary computed tomography for the noninvasive assessment of the coronary arteries. That is an extremely accurate method for detecting or excluding coronary artery disease, even the subclinical forms. This pictorial essay aims to show the main imaging findings in 47 coronary computed tomography scans acquired at a general hospital between January 2014 and June 2018.

Quantification of Calcified Coronary Plaques by Chest Computed Tomography: Correlation with the Calcium Score Technique.

Background: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in the world. Parietal calcifications of the arteries may be visualized and quantified at initial and subclinical states by computed tomography (CT), and expressed as calcium score (CS). It is possible to estimate the prognosis of future cardiovascular events using this score.

Evaluation of Myocardial Perfusion by Computed Tomography - Principles, Technical Background and Recommendations.

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) has gained a prominent role in the evaluation of coronary artery disease. However, its anatomical nature does not allow the evaluation of the functional repercussion of coronary obstructions. It has been made possible to evaluate Myocardial computed tomography perfusion (Myocardial CTP) recently, based on myocardial contrast changes related to coronary stenoses.

Myocardial Perfusion by Coronary Computed Tomography in the Evaluation of Myocardial Ischemia: Simultaneous Stress Protocol with SPECT.

Background: Functional assessment to rule out myocardial ischemia using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is extremely important and data on the Brazilian population are still limited.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic performance of myocardial perfusion by CCTA in the detection of severe obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT). To analyze the importance of anatomical knowledge to understand the presence of myocardial perfusion defects on SPECT imaging that is not identified on computed tomography (CT) scan.

The Value of T1 Mapping Techniques in the Assessment of Myocardial Interstitial Fibrosis.

Cardiac fibrosis, characterized by net accumulation of extracellular matrix in the myocardium, is a common final pathway of heart failure. This myocardial fibrosis (MF) is not necessarily the primary cause of dysfunction; it often results from a reparative process activated in response to cardiomyocyte injury. In light of currently available treatments, late-identified MF could be definitive or irreversible, associated with worsening ventricular systolic function, abnormal cardiac remodeling, and increased ventricular stiffness and arrhythmia.

Practical Implications of Myocardial Viability Studies.

Many non-invasive methods, such as imaging tests, have been developed aiming to add a contribution to existing studies in estimating patients' prognosis after myocardial injury. This prognosis is proportional to myocardial viability, which is evaluated in coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction patients only. While myocardial viability represents the likelihood of a dysfunctional muscle (resulting from decreased oxygen supply for coronary artery obstruction), hibernation represents post-interventional functional recovery itself.

Myocardial T1 mapping and determination of partition coefficients at 3 tesla: comparison between gadobenate dimeglumine and gadofosveset trisodium.

Objective: To compare an albumin-bound gadolinium chelate (gadofosveset trisodium) and an extracellular contrast agent (gadobenate dimeglumine), in terms of their effects on myocardial longitudinal (T1) relaxation time and partition coefficient.

Materials And Methods: Study subjects underwent two imaging sessions for T1 mapping at 3 tesla with a modified look-locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) pulse sequence to obtain one pre-contrast T1 map and two post-contrast T1 maps (mean 15 and 21 min, respectively). The partition coefficient was calculated as Δ /Δ , where is 1/T1.

Detection of coronary artery calcification with nontriggered computed tomography of the chest.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of visual analysis and of the coronary artery calcium (CAC) score in nontriggered computed tomography (CT), in comparison with that of the CAC score in electrocardiogram-triggered CT, in identifying coronary calcification.

Materials And Methods: A total of 174 patients for whom CT was indicated for CAC scoring underwent nontriggered and triggered CT in a 64-channel multislice scanner, in a single session without a change in position. The images were interpreted by a radiologist with seven years of experience in thoracic and cardiovascular radiology.

Myocardial Viability on Cardiac Magnetic Resonance.

The study of myocardial viability is of great importance in the orientation and management of patients requiring myocardial revascularization or angioplasty. The technique of delayed enhancement (DE) is accurate and has transformed the study of viability into an easy test, not only for the detection of fibrosis but also as a binary test detecting what is viable or not. On DE, fibrosis equal to or greater than 50% of the segmental area is considered as non-viable, whereas that below 50% is considered viable.

Three-Dimensional Volumetric Assessment of Diastolic Function by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

Background:: Cardiac Magnetic Resonance is in need of a simple and robust method for diastolic function assessment that can be done with routine protocol sequences.

Objective:: To develop and validate a three-dimensional (3D) model-based volumetric assessment of diastolic function using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging and compare the results obtained with the model with those obtained by echocardiography.

Methods:: The study participants provided written informed consent and were included if having undergone both echocardiography and cine steady-state free precession (SSFP) CMR on the same day.