Study population

Our local ethics committee approved this prospective single-centre study (clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT0246860). All patients provided written informed consent prior to inclusion. Part of the study group and a detailed description of inclusion/exclusion criteria are reported in a previous publication.¹⁶ For the present study, all patients undergoing unenhanced CT (n = 50) for clinical indication were included. Further, an additional total of 56 patients were randomly selected using a random number generator (http://stattrek.com/Tables/Random.aspx). The total study population included 63 male, 43 female; mean age 62 years; range 19–89 years. Patient demographics are depicted in Table 1.

Patient demographics and indications for CT of study patients (n = 106)

BMI, body mass index; presented as n (%) and mean ± SD (range).

^ae.g. prior to transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

^be.g. prior to surgical treatment of pectus excavatum.