ABSTRACT
Since the publication in 1993 of two landmark randomized clinical trials showing the superior outcome of coronary stent implantation as compared with balloon angioplasty, percutaneous coronary interventions using stents have become the preferred revascularization strategy for patients with obstructive coronary artery disease. Multislice computed tomography (CT) (MSCT) has developed into a reliable non-invasive alternative to assess the patency of the coronary arteries. However, coronary stents have been notoriously difficult to assess by CT owing to the occurrence of stent-related high-density artifacts. Cronary stents are easily recognized in vivo on both non-enhanced and contrast-enhanced CT images because the density of the stents is higher than any other tissue in or around the heart, including the contrast-enhanced lumen. Requirements for reliable coronary stent imaging are MSCT scanners with thinner detectors to reduce partial volume effects, higher temporal resolution to reduce motion artifacts, and dedicated filtering of the acquired data to correct for high-density artifacts.
