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CT angiography: an alternative to nuclear perfusion imaging?

Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:
Jeroen J Bax, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands; j.j.bax@lumc.nl

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In Western society, coronary artery disease (CAD) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Extensive effort is continuously invested in the optimisation of diagnosing CAD and selecting subsequent treatment. Within this area, the role of non-invasive imaging has increased enormously. As compared with exercise ECG testing, visualisation of ischaemia using nuclear perfusion imaging (or stress echocardiography or magnetic resonance imaging) has considerably improved detection of CAD as well as appropriate selection of patients in need of further invasive evaluation. More recently, however, a new non-invasive imaging modality has been introduced, namely non-invasive computed tomography coronary angiography (CTA). In contrast to the traditional non-invasive imaging techniques, electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) and multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) permit direct visualisation of the coronary arteries and stenoses. These techniques have attracted a lot of attention, since non-invasive assessment of coronary atherosclerosis and stenoses was previously not possible. The CT techniques . . . [Full text of this article]