Assessment of proximal anastomosis of aortocoronary bypass grafts utilizing EGG-triggered single-slice computed tomography

Purpose: Assessment of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patency with com puted tomography methods has been demonstrated as an alternative to coronar y angiography. The evaluation of the bypass anastomoses is still of limited success. Prospective ECG triggering of conventional CT scanners allows hea rt phase-triggered single-slice acquisition in the sub-second range. The go al of this study was to evaluate whether the use of ECG triggering can opti mize the evaluation of proximal CABG anastomoses. Materials and methods: In ten patients after CABG surgery, EGG-triggered CT with thin (2 mm),contiguous slices was performed in the region of the prox imal bypass anastomoses in the ascending aorta. The data evaluation was don e on axial images and on reconstructed 2D and 3D data sets. Results: The applied technique demonstrated good imaging quality,which allo wed evaluation of the CABG anastomoses in all cases. Overall 18 CABG anasto moses could be visualized;17 anastomoses could be assessed as normal, non-s tenotic and patent. Discussion: EGG-triggered thin-slice CT permits reliable assessment of prox imal CABG anastomoses and expands the usage of CT in the evaluation of CABG .