Influence of Nitroglycerin on Coronary Artery CT Imaging in Cardiovascular Diseases.

Abstract

This study was designed to observe the influence of nitroglycerin on the quality of coronary artery imaging when CT is used for coronary heart disease. Data of 150 cardiology inpatients were collected from Department of Cardiology of our hospital from November 2013 to August 2014 for this study. All the subjects were diagnosed with multislice CT and coronary angiography after admission. The patients were then divided into two groups, the nitroglycerin group of 75 cases who took nitroglycerin and the control group of 75 cases who took no nitroglycerin. A total of 320 mixed plaques (pathological characteristics of calcified ingredients and non-calcified ingredients), including 290 calcified mixed plaques of type I, (mainly with calcified plaques and purely calcified plaques), and 30 non-calcified plaques of type II, (mainly with non-calcified ingredients or pure non-calcified plaques) were scanned. CT coronary angiography showed that the detection rate of type I plaque was 65.5% in control group and 34.8% in nitroglycerin group, whereas the detection rate of type II plaque was 30% in control group and 70% in nitroglycerin group. The difference for both type I and type II was statistically significant (p<0.05). In Comparison with control group, the increase in diameter of 1-13 vascular segments in nitroglycerin group was statistically significant (p<0.05). Taking nitroglycerin can improve the display resolution of coronary angiography, and shows better display for type I than type II plaques.