AJR. American journal of roentgenology
-
AJR Am J Roentgenol · May 2014
Multicenter StudyCT angiography (CTA) and diagnostic performance of noninvasive fractional flow reserve: results from the Determination of Fractional Flow Reserve by Anatomic CTA (DeFACTO) study.
Fractional flow reserve (FFR) computed from standard coronary CT scans (FFRCT) is a novel noninvasive method for determining the functional significance of coronary artery lesions. Compared with CT alone, FFRCT significantly improves diagnostic accuracy and discrimination for patients with and without hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenoses. To date, the impact of CT image quality on diagnostic performance of FFRCT is unknown. We evaluated the impact of patient preparation, CT scan protocol, and factors related to image quality on the diagnostic accuracy of FFRCT. ⋯ Use of β-blockade and nitroglycerin administration before CT improve diagnostic performance of FFRCT. Diagnostic accuracy of FFRCT is significantly reduced in the setting of misalignment artifacts.