A cardiac phantom study on quantitative correction of coronary calcium score on multi-detector, dual source and electron beam tomography for velocity, calcification density and acquisition time

Objective: To quantify the influence of velocity, calcification density and acquisition time on coronary calcium determination using multi-detector CT, dual-source CT and EBT. Materials and Methods: Artificial arteries with four calcifications of increasing density were attached to a robotic arm to which a linear movement was applied between 0 and 120 mm/s (step 10 mm/s). The phantom was scanned five times on 64-slice MDCT, DSCT and EBT using a standard acquisition protocol and the average Agatston score was determined. Results: Increasing motion artifacts were observed at increasing velocities on all scanners, with increasing severity from EBT to DSCT to 64-slice MDCT. The Agatston score showed a linear dependency on velocity from which a correction factor was derived. This correction factor showed a linear dependency on calcification density (0.92≤R 2 ≤0.95). The slope and offset of this correction factor also showed a linear dependency on acquisition time (0.84≤R 2 ≤0.86). Conclusion: The Agatston score is highly dependent on the average density of individual calcifications. The dependency of the Agatston score on velocity shows a linear behaviour on calcification density. A quantitative method could be derived which corrects the measured calcium score for the influence of velocity, calcification density and acquisition time.