Coronary artery calcium scoring: expanding the new standard by photon-counting detector CT—Part I: Impact of tube voltage, tube current, slice thickness, and quantum iterative reconstructions
Question Coronary artery calcium scoring is used for cardiovascular risk stratification. However, the current standard method lacks score reproducibility. Findings A thin-slice, 25%-dose-reduced photon-counting detector CT protocol at 120 kVp significantly reduces score variability compared to previous protocols, including the proposed energy-integrating detector CT protocol. Clinical relevance Improved reproducibility of coronary artery calcium scoring may enable more consistent cardiovascular risk prediction and provide a robust technical basis for further in vivo studies.
Authors
- Emese Zsarnóczay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7952-8478)
- Martin J. Willemink (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6991-6557)
- Pál Surányi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2575-4864)
- Moritz C. Halfmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7550-0171)
- Tobias Doyle Bäuerle
- Lennart R. Koetzier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3593-1430)
- Muhammad Taha Hagar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9826-2372)
- Tilman Emrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6096-3154)
- Gijs D. van Praagh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4396-637X)
- Jens Ricke
- D. Kravchenko
- Milan Vecsey-Nagy
- Nicola Fink
- Akos Varga-Szemes
- Jim O’Doherty
- Pal Maurovich-Horvat
Institutions
- Semmelweis University (HU)
- Medical University of South Carolina (US)
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- University Hospital Bonn (DE)
- LMU Klinikum (DE)
- University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (DE)
- German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DE)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- European Radiology
- Published
- 2026-02-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-026-12355-4
- Primary Topic
- Advanced X-ray and CT Imaging
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Siemens Medical Solutions USA
- Siemens Healthineers