ABSTRACT
In the last few years, the use of computed tomography angiography (CTA) in the clinical workup of patients with known or suspected cardiovascular disease has grown rapidly. With the introduction of spiral CT scanning in the 1990s and the transition to multidetector row technology, and the consequent reduction in acquisition times, CTA has developed so fast that in a few years it has become an easy-to-perform and well-standardised technique. At present, CTA plays a major role in the diagnosis and follow-up of cardiovascular disease, including coronary pathologies, and can be considered as a robust alternative to invasive catheter angiography under different circumstances (e.g. diagnosis of complex vascular and skeletal anomalies, traumatic injuries and their preoperative evaluation). In parallel to these applications, CTA was recently used for vascular mapping in patients undergoing plastic surgery interventions.
