Abstract: TH-PO703
A Novel Magnetic Resonance Sequence That Accurately Detects Aortic Calcification
Session Information
- Hypertension and CVD: Epidemiology, Risk Factors
November 07, 2019 | Location: Exhibit Hall, Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Abstract Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Category: Hypertension and CVD
- 1401 Hypertension and CVD: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Prevention
Authors
- Lees, Jennifer S., University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Rankin, Alastair J., University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Zhu, Luke Yanyang, University of Glasgow, Glasgow City, United Kingdom
- Roditi, Giles, University of Glasgow, Glasgow City, United Kingdom
- Stoumpos, Sokratis, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Mark, Patrick B., University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Background
Vascular calcification is a surrogate marker of cardiovascular disease in patients with renal disease. Computed tomography (CT) is the current gold standard for detecting vascular calcification. StarVIBE (Siemens Healthineers) is a free-breathing, non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence that can detect vascular calcification with advantages over CT: it is radiation-free and can be conducted alongside functional cardiac MRI. We compared MRI-StarVIBE with CT for detection of thoracic aortic calcification in patients with renal disease.
Methods
Paired thoracic CT and MRI scans (<24 hours apart) were obtained from patients with renal disease participating in two prospective cohort studies. Two investigators separately reviewed sagittal views on MRI-StarVIBE (JSL) and CT (AJR) of a 10 cm segment of thoracic aorta from the lower level of the descending aortic arch. Aortic calcification was quantified by manually tracing regions of interest on all image slices. We calculated percentage agreement for presence or absence of calcium on CT and MRI-StarVIBE. Linear regression analysis was used to compare calcium content on MRI-StarVIBE and CT. We randomly reassessed 10% of MRI and CT scans, blinded to the original scores, for inter-observer consistency of agreement using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC).
Results
Ninety patients (78 renal transplant; 12 haemodialysis) had paired MRI-StarVIBE and CT scans. Calcium was detected on 50.0% of CT scans and 55.8% of MRI-StarVIBE sequences; agreement was 92.2%. There was a strong, linear association between CT and MRI-StarVIBE calcium score (r2 = 0.89). Inter-observer consistency of agreement for calcium quantification was excellent for both CT (ICC 0.966, 95% CI 0.878-0.991, p<0.001) and MRI-StarVIBE (ICC 0.996, 95% CI 0.986-0.999, p<0.001).
Conclusion
MRI-StarVIBE is comparable to CT for evaluating aortic calcification without the need for exposure to potentially hazardous ionizing radiation in patients with established renal disease.
Figure: Representative images of calcification (white areas along aortic wall) on CT (A, C) and MRI-StarVIBE (B, D). Images A and B are sagittal slices; images C and D are illustrative coronal slices.
Funding
- Private Foundation Support