Abstract
Since its introduction by Mason Sones in 1959, the standard clinical tool to visualize the coronary artery has been invasive cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography. With high spatial resolution (approximately 0.2 mm), invasive coronary angiography can reliably demonstrate the anatomy of the epicardial coronary arteries down to their third-generation branches. Invasive coronary angiography provides projectional images of the coronary arteries that can make orientation difficult and, because of overlap and foreshortening, can prevent adequate visualization of certain coronary segments. On the other hand, accurate image interpretation requires visualization of the coronary arteries from different imaging planes. CT imaging, as opposed to invasive coronary angiography, generates a data set volume consisting of many 0.5-mm cross-sectional images in transaxial (transverse) orientation, which can be reconstructed in any planes desired. Although the spatial and temporal resolutions are lower than in invasive coronary angiography, the noninvasive nature of the test has led to a rapidly increasing use in clinical practice.
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Saremi, F., Achenbach, S.S., Narula, J. (2018). Normal Coronary Anatomy. In: Budoff, M., Achenbach, S., Hecht, H., Narula, J. (eds) Atlas of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7357-1_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7357-1_3
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