Clinical application of high-pitch dual-CT in total anomalous pulmonary venous connections in children

LIUYong-shun; ZHAOYue-xia; CHENGZhao-ping; WU Da-wei; DUANYan-hua; CAOBao-ting; WANG Xi-ming

Abstract：Objective To explore the usefulness of high‐pitch dual‐source CT (DSCT ) angiography in the evaluation of total anomalous pulmonary venous connections .Methods Ten patients (mean age:0 .31 ± 0 .27 yrs ,age range:1~8 months ,boy :6) with total anomalous pulmonary venous connections underwent DSCT angiography .The types of total a‐nomalous pulmonary venous connections and the number of pulmonary veins were confirmed by the surgical findings .The subjective image quality was evaluated on a four‐point scale by two radiologists .Radiation dose values were calculated . Quantitative data were expressed as means ± standard deviations and categorical data were given in proportions and per‐centages .Interobserver agreement in subjective image quality grading was assessed by using kappa statistics .Results All images were diagnosable .The average subjective image quality score was 2 .7 ± 0 .7(2~4) .Two radiologists made good a‐greement ( k =0 .79) .In all patients ,CT angiography correctly depicted total anomalous pulmonary venous connections . Six cases were the supracardiac type ,two cases were the cardiac type ,,and two cases were the mixed type .The mean dose‐length product was (10 .8 ± 4 .3) mGy · cm resulting in an estimated mean effective radiation dose of (0 .26 ± 0 .08) mSv .Conclusion DSCT angiography provides high diagnostic accuracy for the preoperative assessment of total anomalous pulmonary venous connections in children .