Normative computed tomography angiography values of the main and branch pulmonary arteries in children

Abstract

Non-invasive cardiac imaging like echocardiogram, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR), and computed tomography angiography (CTA) play a key role in the diagnosis, aid in management and follow-up of congenital heart disease patients. Normative data for intracardiac and extracardiac vascular structures in children are currently available for echocardiogram, CMR, and non-gated CTA. We sought to establish systolic and diastolic normative data for main and branch pulmonary arteries in children using electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated CTA. Diameters and cross-sectional areas of the main and branch pulmonary arteries were measured in systole and diastole based on the aortic valve position (open versus closed) in 100 subjects who had ECG-gated cardiac CTA at our center between January 2015 through December 2020 and met our inclusion criteria. The allometric exponent (AE) for each parameter was derived, and the parameter/body surface area (BSA^AE) was established using the previously described methods. A total of 100 children aged 0-18 years were analyzed; mean age was 5.3 years (SD, 6.1 years). Z-score curves were plotted in relation to the BSA for the mean, maximum, and minimum diameters and cross-sectional area of the main and branch pulmonary arteries for systole and diastole. Conclusion: We report systolic and diastolic mean, maximum, and minimum diameters and cross-sectional areas along with Z-scores and normative curves for the main and branch pulmonary arteries in children derived using ECG-gated cardiac CTA. We believe our results can help identify abnormally sized main and branch pulmonary arteries. What is Known: • Normative data for intracardiac and extracardiac vascular structures in the pediatric population are available for echocardiography, cardiac MRI and non-ECG gated CTA. • Z-scores with standard deviations are commonly used in children, but SDs are not constant across body sizes due to heteroscedasticity. What is New: • Allometric exponent was derived for each parameter and the parameter/body surface area (BSA) was established. • This is the first ECG-gated CTA study to provide normative en face systolic, diastolic diameters and cross-sectional areas along with Z-scores and normative curves for the main and branch pulmonary arteries in children.

Keywords: Computed tomography angiography; Normative values; Pediatrics; Pulmonary artery; Z-scores.