Technical developments in cardiac CT: 2000 update

Preliminary results of the new generation CT scanners in the study of the heart and coronary arteries, are reported, after an overview of basic anatomy, physiology and main technical problems. Comparison is made with the other conventional procedures. The clinical validation of cardiac CT is under way while preliminary results are very encouraging. However, for cardiac CT to become an examination of first choice in the study of the heart and coronary arteries, spatial resolution should be improved and acquisitions of 15 cm volume with less than 15 sec breath-hold should be feasible. The improvement in cardiac synchronization and temporal resolution will allow a kynetic systolic as well as diastolic study. This is going to be possible with the new generation CT scanners able of 16 or 32 sections per second.