Impact of Fast Gantry Rotation Cardiac CT Angiography on Coronary Motion Artifacts in the Absence of β-Blocker Premedication in Patients Undergoing Aortic Stenosis Workup: a Single-centre Randomized Controlled Trial

Coronary artery analysis is an essential component of cardiac CT, but is often challenging without beta-blocker use. CT's technological advances are continuously evolving, paving the way for safer and more accurate diagnoses. Part of these innovations is the development of faster rotation speeds (0.23 sec/rotation), which is expected to allow for heart rate-independent CCTA.

Patients subjected to aortic stenosis workup routinely undergo invasive coronary angiography (ICA) in the catheterization laboratory, voiding the need to control the heart rate at the time of cardiac CT because aortic valve measurements can be performed even at higher heart rate. Still, cardiac CT in this context is performed with ECG-gating, and attempting to evaluate coronary arteries is possible without interfering with clinical decisions. Also, the existing literature advocates the use of gantry rotation speeds of at least 0.5 sec/rotation; consequently, the use of 0.28 versus 0.23 sec/rotation for this study will comply with current guidelines and will have no detrimental impact on patient management. This study aims to evaluate coronary artery interpretability in patients subjected to cardiac CT for the anatomical assessment of aortic valve stenosis prior to endovascular (transcatheter aortic valve implantation [TAVI]) or surgical therapy.

Patients will be enrolled after providing written, informed consent, and will be randomly assigned either to the test (0.23 sec rotation time) or control group (0.28 sec rotation).

The participants concerned are not subjected to any additional invasive or stressful procedure compared with those undergoing aortic stenosis workup in clinical routine.