Clinical Medicine Insights: Cardiology

Abstract: A 54 year old female presented with lower extremity edema, fatigue, and shortness of breath with physical findings indicative of advanced aortic insufficiency. Echocardiography showed severe aortic regurgitation and a probable quadricuspid aortic valve. In anticipation of aortic valve replacement, cardiac computed tomography (Cardiac CT) was performed using 100 kV, 420 mA which resulted in 6 mSv of radiation exposure. Advanced computing algorithmic software was performed with a non-linear interpolation to estimate potential physiological movement. Surgical photographs and in-vitro anatomic pathology exam reveal the accuracy and precision that preoperative Cardiac CT provided in this rare case of a quadricuspid aortic valve. While there have been isolated reports of quadricuspid diagnosis with Cardiac CT, we report the correlation between echocardiography, Cardiac CT, and similar appearance at surgery with confirmed pathology and interesting post-processed rendered images. Cardiac CT may be an alternative to invasive coronary angiography for non-coronary cardiothoracic surgery with the advantage of providing detailed morphological dynamic imaging and the ability to define the coronary arteries non-invasively. The reduced noise and striking depiction of the valve motion with advanced algorithms will require validation studies to determine its role.