Quantitative evaluation of coronary artery visibility on CT angiography in Kawasaki disease: young vs. old children

Coronary artery visibility on coronary CT angiography has rarely been investigated in young children with Kawasaki disease. This retrospective study was performed to quantitatively evaluate and compare coronary artery visibility with sufficient quality to measure it on coronary CT angiography among younger and older children with Kawasaki disease. Seventy-eight consecutive children with Kawasaki disease who underwent coronary CT angiography were divided into two groups: group 1 (age <= 6 years; n = 37) and group 2 (age > 6 years and < 18 years; n = 41). The visibility of the right coronary artery, left anterior descending artery, and left circumflex artery was quantitatively evaluated by dividing the length of the assessable coronary artery by the length of the corresponding groove, and compared between the two groups. The coronary artery visibility in group 1 was significantly lower than that in group 2 for the right coronary artery (77.8 +/- 26.3% vs. 94.2 +/- 13.6%, p < 0.002) and left anterior descending artery (54.8 +/- 19.5% vs. 69.6 +/- 21.3%, p < 0.003, but the difference was not significant for the left circumflex artery (43.7 +/- 23.1% vs. 43.9 +/- 26.7%, p > 0.9). In both groups, the visibility of the right coronary artery was the highest, followed by those of the left anterior descending artery and left circumflex artery. Compared with older children with Kawasaki disease, younger children with Kawasaki disease demonstrate significantly lower visibility of the right coronary artery and left anterior descending artery on coronary CT angiography. In contrast, the visibility of the left circumflex artery showed no significant difference between younger and older children with Kawasaki disease.

Automated summary

Coronary artery visibility on coronary CT angiography was compared between younger and older children with Kawasaki disease in this retrospective study. The visibility of right coronary artery and left anterior descending artery was significantly lower in younger children, while no significant difference was found for the left circumflex artery.