Coronary CT in Acute Cardiac Care

Coronary CT angiography is a well-established diagnostic modality for stable angina pectoris. It provides an angiographic, non-invasive alternative for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, exceeding in the ability to exclude important coronary artery disease. Having the ability to reliably exclude coronary artery disease might be of particular benefit to patients who present at the emergency department with suspected coronary artery disease. Although the majority of them have a benign cause for their complaints, missing an acute coronary syndrome can have grave consequences. In the first part, we investigated the value of coronary CT angiography in patients presenting to the emergency department suspected of an acute coronary syndrome. The findings on a coronary CT angiogram might not only be useful for diagnostic purposes, they also may serve as markers of future cardiac adverse events. It seems likely that the presence and degree of coronary artery disease detected by coronary CT angiography will also provide information regarding cardiac adverse events in the future. In the second part, we investigate the prognostic value of coronary CT angiography in different patient populations