The prevalence of coronary artery anomalies in patients undergoing multidetector computed tomography for the evaluation of coronary artery disease

OBJECTIVES
Coronary artery anomalies (CAA) can be detected by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) with a high accuracy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of CAA in subjects undergoing MDCT coronary angiography for the assessment of coronary artery disease.

STUDY DESIGN
This retrospective study included 1056 patients (534 males, 522 females; mean age 58.8±11.5 years) who underwent coronary dual-source 64-slice MDCT coronary angiography for the assessment of coronary artery disease. Coronary angiographic scans were obtained with injection of 80 ml nonionic contrast medium. Retrospective gating technique was used to synchronize data reconstruction with the ECG signal. The reconstructions were obtained in all cardiac phases at 50-millisecond intervals at a slice thickness of 0.75 mm and a reconstruction increment of 0.5 mm. Maximum intensity projection, multiplanar reformatted, and volume rendering images were derived from axial scans.

RESULTS
Eleven patients (1.04%) were found to have a CAA. These included high take-off of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) (n=3, 0.3%), absence of the LMCA (n=3, 0.3%), coronary artery fistula (n=2, 0.2%), right-sided origin of the circumflex artery (n=2, 0.2%), and left anterior descending artery originating from the right coronary artery (n=1, 0.1%).

CONCLUSION
Multidetector computed tomography is a reliable and useful noninvasive method to identify and define anomalous coronary arteries and their course and can be used as the first-line diagnostic tool in the evaluation of CAAs.