ABSTRACT
Imaging of the heart and coronary arteries requires high spatial and temporal resolution. Until quite recently, computed tomography (CT) imaging did not have sufficient temporal resolution to visualize the rapidly moving heart. However, the introduction of electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) in the early 1990s and the subsequent development of multidetector CT (MDCT) scanners substantially improved the ability to perfom CT imaging of cardiac structures, including the coronary arteries. EBCT imaging was initially limited to coronary calcium detection and quantification, but also allowed the first contrast-enhanced non-invasive visualization of the coronary artery lumen (coronary CT angiography, CTA).1,2 MDCT scanners first became available in the year 2000 when 4-slice CT systems were introduced. They dramatically improved spatial resolution and overall image quality for cardiac imaging (while temporal resolution was lower than for EBCT systems). MDCT technology has been evolving rapidly – 64-slice CT systems are now widely available – and MDCT currently represents the ‘gold standard’ for cardiac imaging by CT. Under certain prerequisites, most prominently a low and stable heart rate, MDCT allows relatively robust visualization of the heart and coronary arteries.
