Conus Artery in Coronary CT Angiography

The conus artery is usually the first branch of the right coronary artery (RCA) and passes around the right ventricular outflow tract. To examine whether it is possible to visualize the conus artery in multi-slice computed tomography (CT). In 79 consecutive patients (aged 56 ± 12.9 years; 13 women), 64-slice CT was performed due to a suspicion of coronary artery disease. The standard protocol for scanning with retrospective gating was used for all the patients. It was possible to visualize the conus artery in coronary CT angiography in 64 (81%) patients. The course of the conus artery in the right ventricle was commonly in the outflow tract direction. The conus artery was visualized at a distance of 33.2 ± 16.3 mm. The average diameter of the conus artery was 2.3 ± 0.8 mm. The conus artery most frequently originated from the first segment of the right coronary artery (53%) and directly from the aorta (37.9%). In the rest of the cases, there was a common trunk for both vessels (CA/RCA). In most cases, the conus artery can be visualized in cardiac CT. A description of the conus artery should be a part of the standard clinical coronary CT angiography description.