Coronary artery stents: influence of adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction on image quality using 64-HDCT

OBJECTIVE: The assessment of coronary stents with present-generation 64-detector row computed tomography (HDCT) scanners is limited by image noise and blooming artefacts. We evaluated the performance of adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) for noise reduction in coronary stent imaging with HDCT.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In 50 stents of 28 patients (mean age 64 ± 10 years) undergoing coronary CT angiography (CCTA) on an HDCT scanner the mean in-stent luminal diameter, stent length, image quality, in-stent contrast attenuation, and image noise were assessed. Studies were reconstructed using filtered back projection (FBP) and ASIR-FBP composites. ASIR resulted in reduced image noise vs. FBP (P < 0.0001). Two readers graded the CCTA stent image quality on a 4-point Likert scale and determined the proportion of interpretable stent segments. The best image quality for all clinical images was obtained with 40 and 60% ASIR with significantly larger luminal area visualization compared with FBP (+42.1 ± 5.4% with 100% ASIR vs. FBP alone; P < 0.0001) while the stent length was decreased (-4.7 ± 0.9%, <P = 0.002) and volume measurements were unaffected.

CONCLUSION: Reconstruction of CCTA from HDCT using 40 and 60% ASIR incrementally improves intra-stent luminal area, diameter visualization, and image quality compared with FBP reconstruction.