Who Needs a CT Coronary Angiogram?

CT coronary angiograms are increasing in popularity as a non-invasive screening test for detecting blocks in coronary arteries. Coronary arteries are blood vessels supplying oxygenated blood to the heart. Angiograms are images of blood vessels, usually obtained by injecting medications for contrast from body structures. CT angiograms are reconstructions from multi slice CT scans following injection of contrast material into a forearm veins. Veins are blood vessels returning deoxygenated blood to the heart. CT coronary angiogram can be done as an outpatient test, in the X-ray department. As of now CT angiograms cannot replace conventional coronary angiography while planning procedures like balloon angioplasty. Balloon angioplasty is removal of blocks from the blood vessels using slender long tubes with high pressure balloons at the tip. Conventional coronary angiograms are obtained by injecting medications directly into the coronary arteries and imaging them with X-ray equipment in cardiac catheterization laboratory. The dye is injected through long tubes known as catheters introduced through blood vessels at the wrist or groin. This is how a simple CT image of a blood vessel of the heart will look like in a two dimensional view. One blood vessel has been marked as LCX and is seen arising from aorta, marked as Ao, which is the largest blood vessel arising from the heart and supplying the whole body. A computer software reconstructed three dimensional image will look like this....
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs