Background: To compare the prognostic value of coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA) and coronary multislice computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for prediction of future cardiovascular events.
Methods: One hundred ten patients with suspected or known coronary disease underwent 32-channel 3.0-T MRI and 64-slice CT. The presence of a significant stenosis was defined as a reduction ≥50% in the luminal diameter. All patients were followed-up for the occurrence of cardiovascular events (death, myocardial infarction, necessity of percutaneous or surgical revascularization, necessity of invasive angiography or hospitalization due to recurrent chest pain, and cerebrovascular event).
Results: During a mean follow-up of 40 ± 16 months a total of 38 cardiovascular events were recorded, among them 6 (5.5%) were hard events: 1 (0.9%) cardiac death due to myocardial infarction, 4 (3.6%) nonfatal myocardial infarctions and 1 (0.9%) non-cardiac death. Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated no significant differences in event-free survival between the two techniques (log-rank test p=0.965). The area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve was 63% (95% CI: 52 to 73) for CMRA (p=0.03) and 67% (95% CI: 57 to 77) for CCTA (p=0.003).
Conclusions: In patients with suspected or known coronary disease, CMRA provides similar prognostic information to that of CCTA.
