Feasibility of effective atomic number assessment in coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion

Abstract

Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) imaging provides the effective atomic number (EAN), which expresses the material’s compositions through recording two CT values at a point, simultaneously, with two different voltages. The accuracy of the EAN for classification of soft and fibrous plaque was better than that of the conventional CT value. We investigated the usefulness of the EAN in predicting the difficulty of PCI for CTO.