Diagnostic accuracy of lower-dose cardiac CT in evaluating young infants with non-coronary complex congenital heart disease on a 64-slice multidetector CT scanner

Background Redoable precise and non-invasive diagnostic imaging modality with the least radiation dose is essential for infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) . Purpose To investigate the accuracy and estimate the radiation dose of our cardiac computed tomography (CCT) protocol. Material and Methods A total of 82 infants with CHD underwent non-ECG-gated CCT without contrast timing scanning techniques and were retrospectively studied. The image quality and radiation dose were estimated. The radiation dose was compared statistically to virtual retrospective ECG-gated and prospective ECG-triggering scanning modes. The diagnostic accuracy was assessed assuming the surgical results as the diagnostic gold standard. Results Most exams showed a high quality with low radiation doses compared to previous studies. The mean effective dose (ED) was 0.39 +/- 1.2, significantly lower than that of the virtual retrospective ECG-gated and prospective ECG-triggering scanning and lower than in previous studies. Our CCT protocol has achieved a diagnostic accuracy of 99.52% with a sensitivity of 94.83% and specificity of 99.91%. Conclusion Non-ECG-gated CCT without contrast timing techniques can detect the non-coronary cardiovascular defects of CHD in infants with an ultralow radiation dose and a high diagnostic accuracy.