This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of myocardial calcifications as detected by cardiac computed tomography (CT) and benefits of mapping and ablation focused on nontolerated ventricular tachycardias (VT). The study included 56 post-infarction patients who had a cardiac CT scan prior to a VT procedure. The results indicated that myocardial calcifications were identified in 70% of the patients (39 of 56) in the post-infarction group with VTs compared to 11% (6 of 56) of patients in the control group. The results also indicated that myocardial calcifications corresponded to areas of electrical nonexcitability and formed a border for re-entry circuits for 49 VTs in 62% (24 of 39) of the patients. The authors concluded that “myocardial calcifications detected by cardiac CT in patients with prior infarction are associated with VT.”
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