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We aimed to determine the effect of a whole-heart motion-correction algorithm (new-generation snapshot freeze, NG SSF) on the image quality of cardiac computed tomography (CT) images in patients with mechanical valve prostheses compared to standard images without motion correction and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of NG SSF and standard CT image sets for the detection of prosthetic valve abnormalities.

A total of 20 patients with 32 mechanical valves who underwent wide-coverage detector cardiac CT with single-heartbeat acquisition were included. The CT image quality for subvalvular (below the prosthesis) and valvular regions (valve leaflets) of mechanical valves was assessed by two observers on a four-point scale (1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = good, and 4 = excellent). Paired t-tests or Wilcoxon signed rank tests were used to compare image quality scores and the number of …