ETD

• atherosclerosis
• coronary artery disease
• Multislice thomography

Conventional Coronary Angiography (CCA) is the diagnostic standard for identification
and evaluation of coronary stenosis and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
patency. Limits of this technique (invasivity, undeniable costs, risk of mortality and
morbidity) and the large, worldwide, procedure number, whose only one third followed
by interventional procedures, because of high percentage of uninjured coronary arteries,
suggest the usefulness of a new non-invasive way to visualize the coronaric tree in
patients with actual indication to CCA and Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI).Multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) is a rapidly developing technique and allows
reliable evaluation of the coronary arteries and CABG in a non-invasive manner.
Despite limitations due to calcium, movement, metallic parts and high radiation dose,
MSCT – CA showed a good diagnostic capability in detecting significant coronary
artery stenosis in patient with suspected or known significant coronary artery disease.