Computed tomography (CT) has been gaining widespread acceptance in clinical practice since its invention in the 1970s. However, cardiac imaging with the use of conventional CT has been limited due to the fact that cardiac motion interferes with conventional CT reconstruction algorithms and leads to loss of morphological details due to motion-related artefacts. Traditionally, cardiac imaging has been dominated by invasive coronary angiography. However, this has changed with the development of multislice CT scanners. The main applications of multislice CT in cardiac imaging are demonstrated in the detection and assessment of degree of coronary stenosis and prediction of disease outcomes (1-5).
In addition to the above applications, cardiac CT demonstrates the potential to characterize atherosclerotic plaques, visualize coronary artery wall morphology and identify non-stenotic plaques that may not be detected by invasive coronary angiography (6-8). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of cardiac CT imaging with a focus on the diagnostic and prognostic value in coronary artery disease. Radiation dose issues associated with cardiac CT imaging are discussed; limitations and future directions of cardiac CT are highlighted.