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Assessment of coronary artery disease by post-mortem cardiac MR
European Journal of Radiology, 08/17/2012
Clinical Article
Ruder TD et al. – Chemical shift artifacts (CSA) is a marker of vessel patency. The presence of paired dark bands indicates stenosis. These criteria improve the ability of minimally invasive or virtual autopsy to detect coronary artery disease related deaths.
Methods
- The authors retrospectively compared autopsy and CT findings of 30 cases with significant (≥75%), insignificant (<75%), or absent coronary artery stenosis to post-mortem cardiac MR findings.
- The chi-square test was used to investigate if the occurrence of CSA depends on the presence or absence of stenosis.
- Sensitivity, specificity and predictive values were calculated for each finding.
Results
- CSA indicates the absence of (significant) stenosis (p<0.001).
- The occurrence of paired dark bands in lieu of CSA on post-mortem cardiac MR suggests (significant) coronary arteries stenosis (p<0.001).
- Both findings have a high specificity but low sensitivity.
