Basics of cardiac CT

Cardiac CT has become a first-line test for patients with stable chest pain in several guidelines. Despite the growing importance of cardiac CT, not all radiologists are familiar with this procedure. Radiologists need to know the basic principles of cardiac CT scanning and coronary anatomy before interpreting cardiac CT. Morphological coronary analysis includes assessment of stenosis and plaque. Functional analysis, in other words ischemia analysis, is performed using CT fractional flow reserve and dynamic CT perfusion. In this article, the essential knowledge radiologists need to know at a minimum to interpret cardiac CT is described. (author)