Key result
Ungated lung CT demonstrated excellent intra-reader and inter-reader reproducibility for total aortic arch calcium scores, providing a reliable method for assessing subclinical atherosclerosis.
Why the study?
Aortic arch calcium is frequently detected on ungated lung CT and can indicate subclinical atherosclerotic burden, but novel cardiac screening metrics needed validation by evaluating inter- and intra-observer reproducibility.
Observational (n=100)
Blinded
Yes
Aortic arch calcification can be measured with excellent inter- and intra-reader reproducibility on routine ungated lung CT scans, enabling opportunistic cardiovascular risk assessment without additional imaging.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May enable opportunistic aortic arch calcium scoring on routine lung CT; leaves open prognostic value for cardiovascular risk stratification.
Background: Aortic arch calcium (AAC), which is frequently detected on ungated lung computed tomography (CT) due to a large field of view, can serve as a marker of subclinical atherosclerotic burden. Our study sought to validate novel cardiac screening metrics of subclinical atherosclerosis by evaluating the inter- and intra-observer reproducibility of AAC measurements with ungated lung CT. Methods: The authors randomly selected 100 ungated lung CT scans from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis cohort. A Bland-Altman plot analysis was used to test inter- and intra-reader reproducibility, after measuring the total arch calcium score and arch calcium volume. Results: The intra-reader reproducibility for the total arch calcium score and arch calcium volume in all subjects was excellent at 99% and 97%, respectively. The inter-reader reproducibility for the total arch calcium score and volume in all subjects was similarly excellent at 97% and 96%, respectively. Conclusions: The high reproducibility of ungated lung CT suggests a potential new method of stratifying the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk among patients undergoing lung CT without requiring additional scanning. This methodology helps promote routine reporting of AAC and coronary artery calcium based on millions of ungated CT images acquired for lung screening purposes.
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Golub et al. (2022) conducted an observational in Subclinical atherosclerosis (n=100). Aortic arch calcification measurement on ungated lung CT was evaluated on Intra-reader reproducibility for total arch calcium score. Ungated lung CT demonstrated excellent intra-reader and inter-reader reproducibility for total aortic arch calcium scores, providing a reliable method for assessing subclinical atherosclerosis.
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