Units

PubMed

Doi

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Citation

Type

Journal

Publication Date

Issn Electronic

Pages

Brief description/objective

OBJECTIVE
To prospectively compare the accuracy of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) and conventional coronary angiography (CCA) for stenosis detection using composite findings from both tests as an enhanced reference standard.

METHODS
One hundred thirteen patients underwent CCTA and CCA. Per-segment and per-patient accuracy of CCTA compared with initial CCA interpretation were determined. Angiographers were then unblinded to the CCTA results and re-evaluation of the CCA studies was performed with knowledge of CCTA findings, which was used as an enhanced reference standard to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CCTA versus CCA.

RESULTS
When using the enhanced reference standard instead of initial CCA interpretation, CCTA accuracy for identifying segments (patients) with ≥50% stenosis increased from 97.7% (96.5%) to 98.1% (98.2%), sensitivity from 90.5% (100%) to 90.8% (100%), and specificity from 98.4% (94.3%) to 98.9% (97.1%). CCTA identified six segments and two patients with stenoses ≥50% missed on initial CCA interpretation. Compared with the enhanced reference standard the accuracies of CCTA and of initial CCA interpretation were not different (p = 0.87).

CONCLUSION
CCTA compares favourably with CCA for stenosis detection. Use of a composite reference standard combining findings from both tests can control for the effect of false-negative CCA results when evaluating the accuracy of CCTA.