Coronary calcium Multi-detector computed tomography Diagnostic accuracy The excellent paper by Dr. Budoff et al. highlights the issues surrounding evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of coronary artery calcium (CAC) by 64-row CT to detect obstructive coronary stenosis 0, > 100 and > 400, the sensitivities of 64-row CT to detect stenosis were 98%, 88%, and 60%, whereas the specificities were 42%, 71%, and 88%, respectively. [1] . Using conventional coronary angiography (CA) as the reference standard, the per-patient accuracy of CAC by 64-row CT shows a high sensitivity and low specificity for the presence of obstructive disease. With CAC > Despite technical advances improving both spatial and temporal resolutions, CAC continues to degrade image quality and limits the diagnostic accuracy of CT angiography (CTA) as compared with conventional CA for the detection of obstructive coronary artery disease. The current and previous multicenter data using 64-row CT and Electron Beam CT (EBCT) demonstrate that CAC by CT is lowly specific for the detection of significant coronary artery stenosis [1,2] . This indicates that CAC by multi-detector CT still can't replace conventional CA at present. Considerable progress has been made in coronary MR angiography (MRA) in recent years. No-contrast coronary MRA at 1.5 T and contrast-enhanced coronary MRA at 3.0 T have demonstrated promising results [3–8] . Liu et al. reported that coronary MRA has better diagnostic performance than coronary CTA for the detection of significant stenosis in patients with high calcium scores [5] . However, relatively long scan time and low resolution have limited the general clinical applicability of coronary MRA. These findings suggest that both CTA and MRA, using current technology, probably should not be totally used for clinical diagnostic purposes in patients with substantial coronary calcification. This work was supported by the Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation [ ZR2012HM013 ] and Yantai City Science and Technology Development Plan [ 2012090 ]. The authors of this manuscript have certified that they comply with the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology.
第一作者机构：[1]Yuhuangding Hosp, Yantai 264000, Shandong, Peoples R China;
通讯作者：
通讯机构：[1]Yuhuangding Hosp, Yantai 264000, Shandong, Peoples R China;[5]Yuhuangding Hosp, 20 Yuhuangding East Rd, Yantai 264000, Shandong, Peoples R China
推荐引用方式(GB/T 7714)：
Ma Heng,Wang Yong,Wen Zhaoying,et al.Challenge of coronary artery calcium by 64-multidetector computed tomography[J].INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY.2013,168(5):5044-5044.doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2013.07.217.
APA：
Ma, Heng,Wang, Yong,Wen, Zhaoying,Liu, Ying,Liu, Jing&Yang, Jun.(2013).Challenge of coronary artery calcium by 64-multidetector computed tomography.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY,168,(5)
MLA：
Ma, Heng,et al."Challenge of coronary artery calcium by 64-multidetector computed tomography".INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY 168..5(2013):5044-5044
