Reconstruction of Lung Cancer Screening CT Images for Measurement of Coronary Calcium Scores: Comparison with Coronary Calcium Scores from ECG-gated Cardiac CT

Abstract

Objective: The coronary artery calcium (CAC) score measured by computed tomography (CT) is a strong and independent predictor of coronary events and all-cause mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate CAC using reconstructed images from low dose ECG-ungated CT used for lung cancer screening and to compare the results with CAC evaluation based on ECG-gated cardiac CT.

Methods: Agatston scores for CAC were determined from reconstructed low dose ECG-ungated CT and ECG-gated cardiac CT images collected for 145 subjects (101 men and 44 women) at our institution between September 2009 and July 2013.

Results: The findings showed a good correlation between low dose ECG-ungated CT and ECG-gated cardiac CT for Agatston scores in four risk categories for coronary artery disease (CAD), with a κ value of 0.963.

Conclusion: We conclude that CAC evaluation using low dose ECG-ungated CT performed for lung cancer screening has good interscan agreement with that performed using ECG-gated cardiac CT and is reliable for stratification of examinees into CAD risk categories.