Faster CT machines, due to multidetector capabilities, have made imaging of the heart and circulatory system very practical in a number of clinical settings. The faster capability has allowed the imaging of the heart with minimal involuntary motion, which creates motion blur on the image, and has a number of practical applications. It may be useful in the diagnosis of suspected<unk>  heart disease, for follow-up of a<unk>  artery bypass, for the evaluation of valvular heart disease and for the evaluation of cardiac masses. It is uncertain whether this modality will replace invasive<unk>  catheterization. At present, it appears that the greatest utility of cardiac CT lies in ruling out<unk>  artery disease rather than ruling it in. This is because the test is highly sensitive (over 90% detection rate), so a negative test result largely rules out<unk>  artery disease (i.e. the test has a high negative predictive value). The test is somewhat less specific, however, so a positive result is less conclusive and may need to be confirmed by subsequent invasive<unk> . The positive predictive value of cardiac CTA is approximately 82% and the negative predictive value is around 93%. This means for every 100 patients who appear to have<unk>  artery disease after CT<unk> , 18 of them actually won't have it, and that for every 100 patients who have a negative CT angio test result (i.e. the test says they do not have<unk>  artery disease), 7 will actually have the disease as defined by the reference standard of invasive<unk><unk>  via cardiac catheterization. Both<unk>  and invasive<unk>  via cardiac catheterization yield similar diagnostic accuracy when both are being compared to a third reference standard such as intravascular ultrasound or fractional flow reserve. In addition to the diagnostic abilities, cardiac CTA beholds important prognostic information. Stenosis severity and extent of<unk>  artery disease are important prognostic indicators. However, one of the unique features of cardiac CTA is the fact that it enables the visualization of the vessel wall, in a non-invasive manner. Therefore, the technique is able to identify characteristics of<unk>  artery disease that are associated to the development of acute<unk>  syndrome.
Coronary CT angiography
Coronary CT calcium scan
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging perfusion
Impedance cardiography
Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging
Intracoronary optical coherence tomography
Cardiac ventriculography
Cardiac electrophysiology