Coronary artery calcium scoring using multicardiac computed tomography

OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that multicardiac-phase computed tomography (CT) improves the quantification of coronary artery calcium. METHODS: Calcium-phosphate on a cardiac phantom and 108 calcified plaques from 50 patients were scanned, and multicardiac-phase images were obtained. Motion artifacts and calcium scores of the calcified plaques were compared between cardiac phases and CT scanners. RESULTS: In the phantom images, motion artifacts differed between cardiac phases; thus, the calcium scores were either higher or lower than the score from the static state. In the patient study, motion artifacts of calcifications on the various coronary branches varied with the cardiac cycle, which profoundly influenced the calcium scores. CONCLUSION: Multicardiac-phase CT has the potential to improve the quantification of coronary artery calcium by determining the cardiac phase where motion artifacts are the least on individual calcified plaques.