Purpose: Cardiac CT (CCT) is an imaging modality that is becoming a standard in clinical cardiology. We evaluated indications, safety, and impact on patient management of routine CCT in a multicenter national registry.
Materials and methods: During a period of 6 months, 47 centers in Italy enrolled 3,455 patients.
Results: CCT was performed mainly with 64-slice CT scanners (73.02 %). Contrast agents were administrated in 3,185 patients (92.5 %). Mean DLP changes with type of scanner and was lower in >64 row detector scanner. The most frequent indication for CCT was suspected CAD (44.8 %), followed by calcium scoring (9.6 %), post-angioplasty/stenting (8.3 %), post-CABGs (7.5 %), study of cardiac anatomy (4.22 %) and assessment in patients with known CAD (4.1 %) and acute chest pain (1.99 %). Most of the CCTs were performed in outpatient settings (2,549; 74 %) and a minority in inpatient settings (719, 20.8 %). Adverse clinical events (mild-moderate) occurred in 26 examinations (0.75 %). None of them was severe. In 45.3 % of the cases CCT findings impacted patient management.
Conclusion: CCT is performed with different workloads in participating centers. It is a safe procedure and its results have a strong impact on patient management.
Keywords: Cardiac CT; Coronary artery; Heart diseases; Indications; Registry.