A Comparative Study of Non-contrast Cardiac CT and Coronary CT Angiography in Quantitative Analysis of Epicardial Fat Volume

Objective: To compare non-contrast cardiac CT (NCT) and coronary CT angiography (coronary CTA) for quantitative analysis of epicardial fat volume (EFV) in coronary artery disease cohort. Method: Forty patients underwent retrospective NCT and coronary CTA with ECG-gated. Epicardial boundaries were traced by 2 experienced radiologists (operator 1 and operators 2). EFV was calculated by Autocontour software (AW4.7 workstation, GE). Linear Regression, Bland-Altman method, Coefficient of Repeatability (CR) and Intra Class Correlation (ICC) were computed to analyze the inter-observer variability. Result: There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between NCT (99.43±43.78cm³) and coronary CTA (93.66±48.49cm³) in mean EFV values. For operator 1, CR errors were 10.01cm³ (NCT) and 7.83cm³ (coronary CTA), respectively. For operator 2, CR errors were 11.05 cm³ (NCT) and 7.58cm³(coronary CTA), respectively. ICC values >0.96 were obtained in all cases. CR values were 8.05 cm³ for NCT and 7.13cm³ for CTA. Conclusion: Both NCT and coronary CTA can be used to computer-assist measurements of EFV with ECG-gated.