High-pitch versus conventional cardiovascular CT in patients being assessed for transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a real-world appraisal

Objective: High-pitch protocols are increasingly used in cardiovascular CT assessment for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), but the impact on diagnostic image quality is not known.

Methods: We reviewed 95 consecutive TAVI studies: 44 (46%) high-pitch and 51 (54%) standard-pitch. Single high-pitch scans were performed regardless of heart rate. For standard-pitch acquisitions, a separate CT-aortogram and CT-coronary angiogram were performed with prospective gating, unless heart rate was ≥70 beats/min, when retrospective gating was used. The aortic root and coronary arteries were assessed for artefact (significant artefact=1; artefact not limiting diagnosis=2; no artefact=3). Aortic scans were considered diagnostic if the score was >1; the coronaries, if all three epicardial arteries scored >1.

Results: There was no significant difference in diagnostic image quality for either the aorta (artefact-free high-pitch: 31 (73%) scans vs standard-pitch: 40 (79%), p=0.340) or the coronary tree as a whole (10 (23%) vs 15 (29%), p=0.493). However, proximal coronary arteries were less well visualised using high-pitch acquisitions (16 (36%) vs 30 (59%), p=0.04). The median (IQR) radiation dose was significantly lower in the high-pitch cohort (dose-length product: 347 (318-476) vs 1227 (1150-1474) mGy cm, respectively, p<0.001), and the protocol required almost half the amount of contrast.

Conclusions: The high-pitch protocol significantly reduces radiation and contrast doses and is non-inferior to standard-pitch acquisitions for aortic assessment. For aortic root assessment, the high-pitch protocol is recommended. However, if coronary assessment is critical, this should be followed by a conventional standard-pitch, low-dose, prospectively gated CT-coronary angiogram if the high-pitch scan is non-diagnostic.