Abstract

Purpose To investigate the impact of plaque size and density on virtual noncontrast (VNC)-based coronary artery calcium scoring (CACS) using photon-counting detector CT and to provide safety net reconstructions for improved detection of subtle plaques in patients whose VNC-based CACS would otherwise be erroneously zero when compared with true noncontrast (TNC)-based CACS. Materials and Methods In this prospective study, CACS was evaluated in a phantom containing calcifications with different diameters (5, 3, and 1 mm) and densities (800, 400, and 200 mg/cm