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 Cardiovascular CT can be a valuable asset during the non-invasive work-up because it is the only non-invasive method that slows for direct visualization of the coronary artery lumen and wall. Cardiovascular CT not only determines the severity of obstructive coronary disease, but also determines the presence of calcified and "soft" non-calcified plaque in the wall of the coronary artery before the disease results in significant obstruction and symptoms.
 Utilizing this method, patients with high risk findings would be started on more aggressive risk-reducing therapies, including the use of statins. Another advantage would be to identify patients with suggestive symptoms who have no significant coronary artery disease and reduce the need for them to have an in-hospital coronary angiogram. The rate of "normal", meaning patients with mild coronary artery disease or those with a true normal cath., conventional angiograms is in the 20-40% range. Recent advances in computerized tomography have made possible a minimally invasive method of evaluating coronary artery disease. Studies using 64-slice CT scanners to perform cardiovascular CT show sensitivities and specificities near 90% with a negative predictive value in the high 95% range for identifying significant obstructive disease in both native coronary arteries and coronary artery bypass grafts. |
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Normal left anterior descending artery (LAD) and diagonal artery |
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Normal right coronary artery
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| Normal left main coronary artery bifurcating into the LAD and diagonal coronary artery. |
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