Abstract
In a matter of seconds (12 s to 18 s for 16-slice MDCTA and 6 s to 12 s for 64-slice MDCTA), cardiologists are now able to exclude CAD as the main etiology or as a contributing pathophysiologic factor in patients presenting with heart failure. [...]MDCT coronary angiography can identify, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the presence and location of coronary stenoses versus nonobstructive soft or calcified atherosclerotic plaques (5). [...]as we place the findings of this study in relation to other recent trials focusing on the utilization of MDCTA to exclude or assess the presence and severity of CAD in patients referred for aortic and mitral valve replacement (11), patients with left bundle branch block (12), and those who underwent cardiac transplantation (13), we might speculate that this modality may find a special niche in specific groups of patients who currently undergo invasive angiography but could in the future be better evaluated noninvasively.
