Eur Radiol (2012) 22:1278–1286 DOI 10.1007/s00330-011-2360-7 CARDIAC Coronary artery assessment by multidetector computed tomography in patients with prosthetic heart valves Jesse Habets & Renee B. A. van den Brink & Ruben Uijlings & Anje M. Spijkerboer & Willem P. Th. M. Mali & Steven A. J. Chamuleau & Ricardo P. J. Budde Received: 21 July 2011 / Revised: 10 November 2011 / Accepted: 16 November 2011 / Published online: 23 December 2011 # The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Objectives Patients with prosthetic heart valves may re- quire assessment for coronary artery disease. We assessed whether valve artefacts hamper coronary artery assessment by multidetector CT. Methods ECG-gated or -triggered CT angiograms were selected from our PACS archive based on the presence of prosthetic heart valves. The best systolic and diastolic axial reconstructions were selected for coronary assessment. Each present coronary segment was scored for the presence of valve-related artefacts prohibiting coronary artery assessment. Scoring was performed in consensus by two observers. Results Eighty-two CT angiograms were performed on a 64-slice (n 0 27) or 256-slice (n 0 55) multidetector CT. Eighty-nine valves and five annuloplasty rings were present. Forty-three out of 1160 (3.7%) present coronary artery seg- ments were non-diagnostic due to valve artefacts (14/82 J. Habets (*) : W. P. T. M. Mali : R. P. J. Budde Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, E01.132, PO BOX 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: J.Habets@umcutrecht.nl R. B. A. van den Brink Department of Cardiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands R. Uijlings Department of Cardiology, Deventer Hospital, Deventer, The Netherlands A. M. Spijkerboer Department of Radiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands S. A. J. Chamuleau Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands patients). Valve artefacts were located in right coronary artery (15/43; 35%), left anterior descending artery (2/43; 5%), circumflex artery (14/43; 32%) and marginal obtuse (12/43; 28%) segments. All cobalt-chrome containing valves caused artefacts prohibiting coronary assessment. Biological and titanium-containing valves did not cause artefacts except for three specific valve types. Conclusions Most commonly implanted prosthetic heart valves do not hamper coronary assessment on multidetector CT. Cobalt-chrome containing prosthetic heart valves pre- clude complete coronary artery assessment because of se- vere valve artefacts. Key Points Most commonly implanted prosthetic heart valves do not hamper coronary artery assessment Prosthetic heart valve composition determines the occur- rence of prosthetic heart valve-related artefacts Björk–Shiley and Sorin tilting disc valves preclude diagnostic coronary artery segment assessment Keywords Computed tomography . Prosthetic heart valve . Coronary artery disease . Coronary artery . Artefacts Introduction The introduction of ECG-gated and triggered multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) technology has resulted in new diagnostic cardiac applications, most noticeably cor- onary artery assessment [1]. Recently, MDCT has also shown potential for the evaluation of prosthetic heart valve (PHV) (dys)function by providing complementary diag- nostic information to echocardiography and fluoroscopy, especially in patients with suspected PHV obstruction and PHV endocarditis [2–6].