Image acceptability of low flow rate versus conventional fluoroscopy for coronary angiography /
Lintang B. Bedol, Jr. and Alexander D. Ang.
- Fairview, Quezon City: Department of Internal Medicine, FEU-NRMF, 2019.
- 18 pages: illustrations, tables; (in folder) with CD (soft copy).
Include bibliographical references.
Abstract: The study sought to determine whether using a lower pulse rate of 7.5 frames per second (fps) as compared to the standard pulse rate of 15 frames per second (fps) will not compromise the image quality of the procedure produced. It is well known that exposure to ionizing radiation during invasive procedures places the patients, physician and other medical personnel at risk for potential adverse effects. One possible method to decrease radiation exposure is to decrease the pulse rate used during cardiac catheterization. This is a retrospective analytical study. All coronary angiography studies done from July 2018 to June 2019 were obtained. The records of the patients who underwent diagnostic coronary angiography were viewed to obtain patient and procedural characteristics. The obtained images were categorized into standard and low flow pulse rate groups. Angiographic studies were evaluated by two assessors. Overall image quality was assessed as to poor, average, good. An ordinal regression was employed determine the influence of the different factors to the image quality. A total of 116 studies were obtained. Forty-four patients underwent low flow rate while 72 patients had standard flow rate. These was no significant interaction between the flow rates and the following variables: age, sex, BMI and access point in terms of image acceptability. There was also no significant difference in the duration, fluoroscopy, contrast volume, dose area product and fluoroscopy rates. BSA showed a significant effect of on image quality (-3.773 estimate; p-value 0.007). Both assessors agreed in their evaluations that flow rate significantly affects the image quality. The 7.5 fps had negative estimates (-1.93 and -1.30) with significant p-values (0.000 and 0.001). In this study, it was found out that patient and procedural characteristics had no significant correlation on image quality. Lowering the fluoroscopy rate to 7.5 fps compromises the image quality of the angiographic study.