Abstract
Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is an efficient method for the diagnosis of heart disease. However, few contemporary studies have evaluated the prognostic value of three-dimensional (3D)-CTA for patients with acute coronary artery disease. The aim of the present study was to investigate the diagnostic value of 3D-CTA for patients with acute coronary artery disease. A total of 136 patients with suspected acute coronary artery disease were recruited and received conventional coronary angiography (CCA) and 3D-CTA. 3D-CTA was used to assess calcified plaques in the coronary arteries (CCTA), the ratio of calcified plaque volume to vessel circumference (RVTC) and diagnostic accuracy. The results revealed that 3D-CTA was a more effective diagnostic method for identifying calcified plaques in patients with acute coronary artery disease compared with CCA. 3D-CTA demonstrated a significantly better area under curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value compared with CCA (P<0.01). In the present study, 3D-CTA was used to successfully diagnose 86 patients with acute coronary artery disease, 34 with myocardial infarction and 16 with stable angina. 3D-CTA images clearly showed global noise levels and target-to-background ratios determined by manually delineated coronary plaque lesions compared with CCA. Furthermore, 3D-CTA was significantly better for discriminating ischemia compared with CCA (P<0.01). In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that 3D-CTA provides superior diagnostic performance compared with CCA alone in patients with acute coronary artery disease.