Cardiac CTA was similar to TTE in identification of vegetation and dehiscence in the present study, although, unsurprisingly, cardiac CTA demonstrated significantly higher sensitivity for pseudoaneurysm and abscess. This is regardless of almost one-half of patients having prosthetic valves with current evidence indicating that cardiac CTA has the capability to change diagnosis/treatment with echocardiography in 20–25% of prosthetic IE cases [
14]. The diagnosis of perivalvular abscess/pseudoaneurysm related with endocarditis is vital because the presence of a perivalvular abscess/pseudoaneurysm increases the mortality rate by up to 2-fold [
15]. In the present study, thirteen patients (54.2%) developed an abscess/pseudoaneurysm, and cardiac CTA correctly diagnosed ten more cases with abscesses/pseudoaneurysms than echocardiography. Echocardiography can underestimate perivalvular involvement, particularly in the case of small lesions, calcified or prosthetic valves [
16,
17]. In patients with problematic to characterize perivalvular extension of infection by TTE, cardiac CTA is a practical next diagnostic step with the capability to define the coronary arterial anatomy concurrently, thus avoiding a supplementary procedure such as invasive coronary catheterization and contrast exposure. Cardiac CTA discovered paravalvular abscesses that might not be perceived on TTE due to shadowing of valvular calcification or mechanical valve. Cardiac CTA can be used as a subsidiary modality for detecting infective endocarditis, predominantly in patients who cannot tolerate transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) or with a poor acoustic window. Cardiac CTA has excellent negative predictive value in low to intermediate coronary artery disease (CAD) risk patients. The evidence has been less robust in high risk patients with some studies representing a continuous high negative predictive value whereas others sustaining a high sensitivity, but a decline in NPV due to the increased prevalence of disease [
18,
19]. A cost effectiveness study integrating cardiac CTA as a first line test in pre-operative coronary evaluation for non-cardiac surgery established a decreased cost associated with the work-up and perioperative period [
20]. Hence, along with avoiding an invasive procedure with a low risk for adverse events, this approach may be economically practical as well. This will reliably exclude significant coronary artery disease and possibly avoid invasive cardiac catheterization with its related potential complications, and might assistance with surgical planning. There are several studies published up to the present time to support this approach of pre-operative CTA in non-cardiac along with cardiac surgery. [
21] Ciolina et al. demonstrated the additional value of cardiac CTA for assessing the aortic valve in pre-operative work-up for aortic stenosis [
22]. In 42 patients, cardiac CTA appropriately graded aortic valve calcification, sized the aortic annulus and sinotubular junction, perceived thoracic aortic aneurysms, and properly assessed aortic valve area while also being used to evaluate coronary artery. The capability of cardiac CTA to concurrently provide additional diagnostic information and reliably evaluate coronary artery makes it a versatile diagnostic test with significant yield in the pre-operative work-up of patients with IE and other valvular disorders. Our study has limitations that warrant address. First, the analysis was performed in a single center for selected patients who undertook surgical treatment for infective endocarditis. A selection bias may consequently have been introduced during the evaluation of the results. Furthermore, because we have collected surgically managed patients in this study, we could not include all infective endocarditis patients who were treated by medical treatment alone. Nevertheless, we have focused on the surgical findings to compare the cardiac CTA and echocardiography findings. Second, surgical inspection might not be the faultless reference standard for infective endocarditis, predominantly for small lesions. Small vegetation, leaflet perforations, or abscess/pseudoaneurysm formation might not be noticed by surgical inspection.
Finally, the radiation dose is still the primary apprehension of cardiac CTA, particularly in retrospective ECG-gating with a higher radiation dose. A prospective ECG-triggering method using dual-source CT or iterative reconstruction might be used in a future study to reduce this radiation exposure.