How is Cardiac CT done?
The patient is put comfortably on a CT scanner table and a baseline calcium score is calculated in a matter of seconds. Following this contrast is injected in one of the peripheral veins with online ECG monitoring. All the images required for a Cardiac CT are obtained in one single breath hold within 5 seconds. Subsequently processed, reformatted, analyzed and evaluated on a workstation. The inferences deduced provide the radiologist an accurate picture of the heart and the coronary vessels that supply it. The arteries are evaluated for narrowing, blockage, presence of different varieties of plaque ( stable/ unstable.. the rupture of which is a common cause of sudden death). Plaque evaluation also helps in deciding various modes of therapy. The status of the various chambers of the heart, cardiac muscle, and the main vessels carrying blood to and from the heart can also be easily seen. It is an excellent investigation to evaluate post operative grafts, stents, and to exclude non cardia
