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Collateral non cardiac findings in clinical routine CT coronary angiography: results from a multi-center registry

  • CARDIAC RADIOLOGY
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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of collateral findings detected in computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) in a multi-center registry.

Materials and methods

We performed a retrospective review of 4303 patients (2719 males, mean age 60.3 ± 10.2 years) undergoing 64-slice CTCA for suspected or known coronary artery disease (CAD) at various academic institutions between 01/2006 and 09/2010. Collateral findings were recorded and scored as: non-significant (no signs of relevant pathology, not necessary to be reported), significant (clear signs of pathology, mandatory to be reported), or major (remarkable pathology, mandatory to be reported and further investigated).

Results

We detected 6886 non-cardiac findings (1.6 non cardiac finding per patient). Considering all centers, only 865/4303 (20.1 %) patients were completely without any additional finding. Overall, 2095 (30.4 %) non-significant, 4486 (65.2 %) significant, and 305 (4.4 %) major findings were detected. Among major findings, primary lung cancer was reported in 21 cases. In every center, most prevalent significant findings were mediastinal lymph nodes >1 cm. In 256 patients, collateral findings were clinically more relevant than coexisting CAD and justified the symptoms of patients.

Conclusions

The prevalence of significant and major collateral findings in CTCA is high. Radiologists should carefully evaluate the entire scan volume in each patient.

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Conflict of interest

None of the Authors have potential conflict of interests or financial disclosures concerning the material of this study.

Ethical standards

This article contains a retrospective study; for this type of study formal consent is not required. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, DIBIMED, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 127, 90100, Palermo, Italy

    Ludovico La Grutta, Roberto Lagalla & Massimo Midiri

  2. Department of Radiology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Roberto Malagò, Camilla Barbiani, Andrea Pezzato & Roberto Pozzi Mucelli

  3. Department of Radiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Roberto Malagò, Nico R. Mollet, Gabriel P. Krestin & Filippo Cademartiri

  4. Department of Radiology, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Parma, Italy

    Erica Maffei, Chiara Martini, Teresa Arcadi, Alberto Clemente & Filippo Cademartiri

  5. Cardio-Vascular Imaging Unit, Giovanni XXIII Hospital, Monastier di Treviso, Italy

    Erica Maffei & Chiara Martini

  6. Department of Radiology and Cardiology, Azienda ASL, Carrara, Italy

    Alessandra Zuccarelli

Authors
  1. Ludovico La Grutta
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  2. Roberto Malagò
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  3. Erica Maffei
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  4. Camilla Barbiani
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  5. Andrea Pezzato
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  6. Chiara Martini
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  7. Teresa Arcadi
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  8. Alberto Clemente
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  9. Nico R. Mollet
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  10. Alessandra Zuccarelli
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  11. Gabriel P. Krestin
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  12. Roberto Lagalla
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  13. Roberto Pozzi Mucelli
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  14. Filippo Cademartiri
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  15. Massimo Midiri
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ludovico La Grutta.

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La Grutta, L., Malagò, R., Maffei, E. et al. Collateral non cardiac findings in clinical routine CT coronary angiography: results from a multi-center registry. Radiol med 120, 1122–1129 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-015-0551-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-015-0551-z

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