High image quality seen in high-pitch cardiac DSCT

High-pitch cardiac CT is becoming an important new method of scanning the thorax quickly and at very low doses. A group from Medical University of Vienna tried it on a 128-slice dual-source CT (DSCT) scanner and came up with excellent results versus other scanning methods.

Gudrun Feuchtner, MD, and her team used a high-pitch coronary CT angiography protocol to scan 115 patients, most presenting with chest pain. Depending on heart rate and sinus rhythm status, patients were divided into groups using high-pitch Flash mode (< 60 bpm), prospective electrocardiogram triggering (< 80 bpm), or retrospective triggering (> 80 bpm or arrhythmia).

The results showed just one nondiagnostic coronary artery in high-pitch mode due to raised heart rate and arrhythmia. The mean dose for high-pitch mode was 1.07 mSv, compared to 4.2 mSv for the prospectively triggered scans and 11.1 mSv for retrospective exams. High-pitch scanning also cut the contrast volume to 66 mL, Feuchtner said.