Non-invasive detection and assessment of coronary artery disease with multidetector-row computed tomography.

The fast volume coverage of retrospective ECG-gated multidetector-row helical CT(MDCT)arrows for acquisition of the entire heart volume with nearly isotropic spatial resolution(0.5×0.5×0.6 mm)within a single breath-hold. The sub-millimeter spatial resolution enables depiction of the major and also of peripheral coronary artery segments with lumen diameter down to 1 mm. The results of studies of stenosis detection have shown that coronary CT angiography can reliably detect and exclude high-grade stenosis>50%. In addition, preliminary data indicate that MDCT angiography might arrow detection and evaluation of atherosclerotic plaques in different stages. The differentiation of lipid-rich, fibrous and calcified plaques using coronary CT angiography correlates well with the intracoronary ultrasound results based on measurement of the mean HU-value in the lesion. Non-invasive follow-up after