COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND CORONARY ARTERY ANOMALIES: TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Abstract

Coronary artery anomalies are rarely represented in the general population. In most cases their discovery is accidental, during a conventional coronary angiography. They often cause sudden cardiac death in athletes, in children, but also in adults. They can be asymptomatic until adult age and then show up as a cause of angina or acute myocardial infarction. Recently, conventional coronary angiography has been supported by other non-invasive cardiology diagnostic imaging methods, such as the Electron Beam Tomography (EBT), the Magnetic Resonance and Multislice Computed Tomography (MSCT). The MSCT has quickly gained credibility, due to the quality of the results obtained and to their reproducibility in multiplanar morphologic evaluation of coronary arteries. MSCT is an appropriate and justified technique, when a coronary artery anomaly is suspected.