NEWTON, Mass., July 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Rcadia Medical
Imaging has achieved proof-of-concept with the first fully
automated software that performs calcium scoring directly from a
coronary CT angiography (cCTA) study. This technology, the first to
show strong correlation with the standard, Agatston scoring, has
the potential to eliminate the need for a separate calcium score
(CS) exam, and thereby reduce costs and decrease patient
radiation exposure. This work in progress is based on Rcadia’s COR
Analyzer System technology for fully automatic detection of
stenosis in cCTA studies.
CS is an important predictor of coronary artery disease that is
commonly used by cardiologists. Until recently, a separate calcium
scoring CT study was frequently conducted prior to a cCTA exam.
With the new generation of CT scanners, CS can be accomplished from
cCTA; a separate CS study, which increases the patient’s radiation
exposure, has the potential to be avoided. The feasibility of this
approach has been demonstrated by a number of studies using
semi-automatic segmentation of calcified lesions. Rcadia is
developing a system, based on a fully automatic approach designed
to bring simplicity, robustness and consistency into this
technique.
To assess the diagnostic performance of the system, a
retrospective trial was conducted based on cCTA and standard
calcium scoring studies of 215 patients. Calcium score
automatically computed from cCTA by Rcadia’s software was compared
to Agatston score obtained from non-enhanced calcium scoring
studies using the standard technique. The system demonstrated good
correlation with the standard Agatston score, achieving 90%
accuracy for the classification into five calcium score ranges (0,
1-10, 11-100, 101-400 and above 400). The company believes the
trial is the first reported study to match an automatically
computed calcium score from cCTA to the standard Agatston score
from non-enhanced calcium scoring studies.
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