Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Imaging
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1525807

Correlation between CT-derived fractional flow reserve and myocardial strain in ischemic heart disease patients with single coronary artery stenosis assessed based on CCTA

Provisionally accepted
Ren Ruichen Ren Ruichen Wenting Li Wenting Li Qingyuan Zhao Qingyuan Zhao Chengcheng Qi Chengcheng Qi *Mingyu Peng Mingyu Peng *Xiaoxue Zhang Xiaoxue Zhang *Duwang Su Duwang Su *Pei Han Pei Han *Yang Zhang Yang Zhang *
  • Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: We aimed to investigate the correlation between CT-derived fractional flow reserve (CTFFR) and myocardial strain in patients with single coronary artery stenosis and to investigate the diagnostic value of CTFFR in identifying impaired myocardial strain. Methods: We selected 89 patients, categorized into three groups based on the affected coronary artery: 36 with left anterior descending (LAD), 23 with left circumflex (LCX), and 30 with right coronary artery (RCA) stenosis, along with 25 healthy controls. We investigated correlations between CTFFR and both global and regional myocardial strain parameters. Additionally, we assessed the ability of the CT-FFR to detect impaired myocardial strain in these patients. Results: In this study, no significant difference was found in overall myocardial strain between the patient and control groups. However, regional longitudinal strain (LS) and circumferential strain (CS) in the myocardial areas supplied by stenotic coronary arteries was significantly lower in each patient group compared to the others (P<0.001). The CT-FFR exhibited a strong negative correlation with both regional and global myocardial strain, with a stronger association for regional strain. Particularly in group LAD, CTFFR in optimal diastole phase (CTFFR-D) was negatively correlated with Endo-LS (r = -0.66, P<0.001). Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis indicated that CTFFR were effective in diagnosing impaired myocardial strain, particularly LS. Conclusion: There is a strong correlation between CTFFR, which is a functional measure for assessing coronary artery stenosis, and myocardial strain. CTFFR can identify impaired myocardial strain and can be used as an indirect indicator of myocardial ischemia.

    Keywords: Coronary computed tomography angiography, Coronary Artery Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Fractional flow reserve, Strain

    Received: 10 Nov 2024; Accepted: 03 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Ruichen, Li, Zhao, Qi, Peng, Zhang, Su, Han and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Chengcheng Qi, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China
    Mingyu Peng, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China
    Xiaoxue Zhang, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China
    Duwang Su, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China
    Pei Han, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China
    Yang Zhang, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.