CT angiography

Full text: Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is one of the big accomplishments in diagnostic radiology. CTA was developed shortly after the introduction of spiral (helical) CT scanning in the early 1990s. Spiral CT had made it possible to cover body regions so rapidly that the transient enhancement of the vascular system following intravenous contrast injection could be captured during one scan. With the introduction of multidetector-row technology, CTA has become and easy to perform standard technique for vascular imaging. Over the years, CTA and MRA has taken over most diagnostic vascular procedures from invasive catheter angiography. First it was the aorta and the pulmonary arteries, later on the carotids, renal and splanchnic arteries, and recently also peripheral arteries and the circle of Willis. Most recently, CTA of the coronaries has been developed. CTA has the advantage that it can be highly standardized, which makes it a very fast and robust procedure, and it is the technique of choice in many acute vascular diseases. It provides three dimensional information with a comparatively high spatial resolution and allows for simultaneous evaluation of the vascular lumen as well as the vessel wall and the surrounding structures.