PCCT reduced overestimation of coronary artery calcium compared with conventional energy-integrating detector CT (EID-CT), addressing the well-known impact of calcium blooming, partial-volume effects, beam hardening, and motion artifacts on coronary calcium assessment.
The study used native coronary arteries from 10 cadavers and compared clinical PCCT and EID-CT measurements against ultra-high-resolution micro-CT as the reference standard, allowing scanner-related measurement bias to be assessed independently of patient motion.
The technical advantage of PCCT was evaluated across multiple quantitative calcium metrics, including calcium volume, maximum plaque thickness, and calcium scoring, supporting the potential of higher spatial resolution and reduced blooming to provide more accurate characterization of coronary calcification.
