Coronary calcification detected with fast CT as a marker of coronary artery disease

This paper reports on angiographic evidence of critical stenosis and the presence of coronary artery calcifications detected by means of both fluoroscopy and standard CT. CT performed with a 100-msec acquisition may have superior sensitivity in the detection of coronary artery calcifications. One hundred patients (aged 25-60 years) undergoing routine coronary angiography for suspected coronary disease were studied with the Imatron C-100 scanner. The 100 msec acquisitions were electrocardiographically triggered. Calcification was defined as at least two adjacent pixels with CT density of 140 HU or more. Significant angiographic disease was defined as at least one stenosis of 50% or more in a major branch