Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Dec 3:3:326.
doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-3-326.

Incidental cardiac findings on computed tomography imaging of the thorax

Paul Wx Foley  1 , Ali Hamaad, Hossam El-Gendi, Francisco Leyva
Affiliations

Incidental cardiac findings on computed tomography imaging of the thorax

Paul Wx Foley et al. BMC Res Notes. .

Abstract

Background: Investigation of pulmonary pathology with computed tomography also allows visualisation of the heart and major vessels. We sought to explore whether clinically relevant cardiac pathology could be identified on computed tomography pulmonary angiograms (CTPA) requested for the exclusion of pulmonary embolism (PE). 100 consecutive CT contrast-enhanced pulmonary angiograms carried out for exclusion of PE at a single centre were assessed retrospectively by two cardiologists.

Findings: Evidence of PE was reported in 5% of scans. Incidental cardiac findings included: aortic wall calcification (54%), coronary calcification (46%), cardiomegaly (41%), atrial dilatation (18%), mitral annulus calcification (15%), right ventricular dilatation (11%), aortic dilatation (8%) and right ventricular thrombus (1%). Apart from 3 (3%) reports describing cardiomegaly, no other cardiac findings were described in radiologists' reports. Other reported pulmonary abnormalities included: lung nodules (14%), lobar collapse/consolidation (8%), pleural effusion (2%), lobar collapse/consolidation (8%), emphysema (6%) and pleural calcification (4%).

Conclusions: CTPAs requested for the exclusion of PE have a high yield of cardiac abnormalities. Although these abnormalities may not have implications for acute clinical management, they may, nevertheless, be important in long-term care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of incidental findings observed on CT pulmonary angiograms. Figure 1a: coronary calcification, Figure 1b: right ventricular mural thrombus. Figure 1c: aortic wall calcification.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Garg K, Welsh CH, Feyerabend AJ, Subber SW, Russ PD, Johnston RJ. et al.Pulmonary embolism: diagnosis with spiral CT and ventilation-perfusion scanning - correlation with pulmonary angiographic results or clinical outcome. Radiology. 1998;208:201–208. - PubMed
    1. Perrier A, Howarth N, Didier D, Loubeyre P, Unger PF, de Moerloose P. et al.Performance of helical computed tomography in unselected outpatients with suspected pulmonary embolism. Ann Intern Med. 2001;135:88–97. - PubMed
    1. Mayo JR, Remy-Jardin M, Müller NL, Remy J, Worsley DF, Hossein-Foucher C. et al.Pulmonary embolism: prospective comparison of spiral CT with ventilation-perfusion scintigraphy. Radiology. 1997;205:447–452. - PubMed
    1. David AM, Monish L, Patrick MC. The prevalence of incidental findings at cardiac MRI. Open Cardiovasc Med J. 2008;2:20–25. doi: 10.2174/1874192400802010020. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aglan I, Jodocy D, Hiehs S, Soegner P, Frank R, Haberfellner B, Clinical relevance and scope of accidental extracoronary findings in coronary computed tomography angiography: A cardiac versus thoracic FOV study. Eur J Radiol. 2009. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources