Visibility of the origin and proximal course of coronary arteries on non-ECG-gated heart CT in patients with congenital heart disease

Background: There is little information on the ability of non-ECG-gated cardiac CT to demonstrate the coronary arteries of children. Objective: To evaluate the visibility of the origin and proximal course of coronary arteries on non-ECG-gated cardiac CT, in which the coronary artery was not of primary diagnostic concern, in children with congenital heart disease. Materials and methods: From December 2002 to March 2004, 126 cardiac CT examinations from 104 children (median age 11 months; age range 1 day to 15 years) were evaluated. All patients had ventriculo-arterial concordance and no malformations of the great arteries; those with coronary artery anomalies were excluded. Contrast-enhanced 16-slice spiral CT was performed without ECG-gating and multiplanar images for coronary arteries were obtained. The visibility of coronary artery origins was graded on a three-point scale, while nine segments of the arteries were graded on a four-point scale. CT images in which it was possible to trace the coronary arteries were considered diagnostic. The visibility of each whole coronary artery and the origins and proximal four segments of coronary arteries were calculated. The visibility of coronary arteries was also correlated with patient age. Results: The percentage of CT images of diagnostic quality was 49.3% for the whole coronary artery and 81.7% for the origins and proximal four segments. There was a significant positive correlation between the visibility of coronary arteries and age. Conclusions: Non-ECG-gated cardiac CT, in which the coronary artery is not of primary diagnostic concern, is frequently able to visualize the origin and proximal course of coronary arteries and may be helpful in detecting coronary artery anomalies in children with congenital heart disease.