title: Computed tomography of the heart and great vessels: present and future.
abstract: Computed tomography (CT) has emerged as a new imaging method for the diagnosis and evaluation of cardiovascular disease. With CT body scanners and contrast enhancement, evaluation of aortic dissections and aneurysms, coronary bypass graft patency, cardiovascular thrombus, cardiac tumors, and pericardial disease is possible. On occasion, this technique provides clinically useful information that is not available with other imaging methods. Electrocardiographic gating retrospectively or prospectively improves the image resolution of CT scans, but a new ultrafast CT scanner with a scan time of 30 to 50 milliseconds offers the greatest promise for expanding the application of the technology for cardiovascular diagnosis. Accurate measurement of cardiac chamber volume, mass, wall motion, and wall thickening will be feasible. Ultrafast CT scanning also shows great promise for the measurement of myocardial infarct size and regional myocardial blood flow.
mesh_terms: D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001014:Aortic Aneurysm / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001027:Aortography / Q000379:methods*; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D005544:Forecasting; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006322:Heart Aneurysm / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006334:Heart Function Tests / Q000379:methods; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D010496:Pericardium / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends