Cardiac CT: The report

Our CT angiography reports include section thickness, use of retrospective ECG gating, contrast material volume injection speed, medications used, and image postprocessing methods such as MPR and 3D reconstruction.

The report include the description of great vessel and cardiac anatomy including the pericardium (calcifications, liquid, thickening), myocardium (thickness, areas of infarction, scars, atrophy, etc,), cardiac chambers (thrombus, mass), valves, pulmonary veins, pulmonary arteries and aorta.

One section is dedicated to the incidental findings in the mediastinum, chest wall and lung (for example a description and classification of lung nodules, with recommendations for follow-up).

The results of quantitative calcium scores (Agatston, volume, and mass scores) are calculated in an other report (10-12) and the risk factor of coronary artery disease is described in the conclusion.

Calcium Score (7-9)	Implication	Risk of Coronary Artery Disease
0	No identifiable plaque	Very low, generally less than 5%
1-10	Minimal identifiable plaque	Very unlikely, less than 10%
11-100	Definite, at least mild atherosclerotic plaque	Mild or minimal coronary narrowings likely
101-400	Definite, at least moderate atherosclerotic plaque	Mild coronary artery disease highly likely, significant narrowings possible
401 or higher	Extensive atherosclerotic plaque	High likelihood of at least one significant coronary narrowing

In the coronary section, the presence and course of anomalous coronary arteries, as well as the coronary supply type (right-, left, or co-dominant), are noted.

We analyse all segments of each coronary artery (left main, LAD, CX, RCA). We use the common terminology found in routine report of coronary angiography, which describes lesions as being located in the proximal, middle or distal portion of the respective main coronary arteries and their side branches (diagonal and septal branches, marginal branches of circumflex artery and acute marginal branches of RCA). The type of atherosclerotic plaque burden (calcified or noncalcified) is noted for each segment. The severity of stenosis is described in terms of percentage of luminal obstruction (<50%, 50%, 50-70%, >70% or occlusion). The severity of the coronary calcifications is noted as light, moderate or severe.

A scale is used to assess the image quality: assessable or non assessable. If the segment is considered to be not assessable, the reason is noted (calcifications, kinetic artefact, size <1.5 mm or contrast) (4).

When coronary artery bypass grafts are present, we describe the type, origin, course, and site of anastomosis. The presence, location and degree of graft stenosis and the quality of the runoff within the grafted vessel distal to the anastomosis (13).