Hemodynamic significance of coronary stenosis by vessel attenuation measurement on CT compared with adenosine perfusion MRI

Purpose. We assessed the association between corrected contrast opacification (CCO) based on coronary computed tomography angiography (cCTA) and inducible ischemia by adenosine perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (APMR). Methods. Sixty cardiac asymptomatic patients with extra-cardiac arterial disease (mean age 64.4 ± 7.7 years; 78% male) underwent cCTA and APMR. Luminal CT attenuation values (Hounsfield Units) were measured in coronary arteries from proximal to distal, with additional measurements across sites with >50% lumen stenosis. CCO was calculated by dividing coronary CT attenuation by descending aorta CT attenuation. A reversible perfusion defect on APMR was considered as myocardial ischemia. Results. In total, 169 coronary stenoses were found. Seven patients had 8 perfusion defects on APMR, with 11 stenoses in corresponding vessels. CCO decrease across stenoses with hemodynamic significance was 0.144 ± 0.112 compared to 0.047 ± 0.104 across stenoses without hemodynamic significance (P = 0.003). CCO decrease in lesions with and without anatomical stenosis was similar (0.054 ± 0.116 versus 0.052 ± 0.101; P = 0.89). Using 0.20 as preliminary CCO decrease cut-off, hemodynamic significance would be excluded in 82.9% of anatomical stenoses. Conclusions. CCO decrease across coronary stenosis is associated with myocardial ischemia on APMR. CCO based on common cCTA data is a novel method to assess hemodynamic significance of anatomical stenosis. Keywords: Coronary artery disease; Computed Tomography; Contrast opacification; Magnetic resonance imaging