CT Coronary Angiography: Uses Preparations & Benefits

What is CT coronary angiography?

The diagnostic procedure known as coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA)/Ct coronary angiography provides extremely precise three-dimensional pictures of the arteries inside your heart that help your doctor find anomalies the process of blood circulation throughout your heart and identify the presence of a cardiovascular disease. CCTA is occasionally used to assess the overall health of the heart. Plaque build-up, which can be made of cholesterol, calcium, or fat and can cause cardiovascular disorders, including coronary artery disease (CAD) or cardiac failure, might be a sign of an arterial anomaly.

Injecting a harmless contrast material (dye) into patients before a CCTA procedure increases the visibility of obstructions and other anomalies. A CT scan produces the cross-sectional pictures of your body. A CCTA provides the pictures of the heart after the contrast material is introduced to highlight the affected areas of the heart.

A CT or CAT scan, also referred to as computed tomography, is a diagnostic imaging procedure. It creates several images or photos of the interior of the body, similar to those produced with standard X-rays. The images produced with a CT scan can be organised in many dimensions, and even three-dimensional pictures can be produced by it.

Uses of CT coronary angiography

Many doctors recommend a cautious use of CCTA for the patients suffering from the certain conditions:

• People with coronary arteries that might have unusual anatomy
• Individuals with chest discomfort who also have a normal, non-diagnostic, or unreliable laboratory, and ECG values, who are considered at a low or medium risk of coronary artery disease (CAD)
• People with unusual chest discomfort of low to medium risk
• Individual having chest pain that is not acute
• Patients showing new or worsening symptoms even after a good stress test (a test used to see how the heart responds to physical activities) finding
• Individuals showing stress test findings that are imprecise or inconclusive
• People having the low or moderate risk of cardiovascular diseases and sudden cardiac failure with an impaired function of the heart
• People who have to undergo non-coronary heart surgery as there is a low chance of developing coronary artery disease
• People with coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG)

For the patients who meet the criteria listed above, CCTA can offer crucial details regarding the existence and degree of plaques inside the coronary arteries. It can be used to detect other potential reasons for events, including lung collapse, blood clots in the veins leading towards the lungs, or aortic anomalies, and to determine whether the narrowing of the coronary arteries is the source of chest discomfort. Your family doctor or a heart specialist will decide if CCTA is a suitable option for you after consulting a radiologist who will perform the imaging procedure.

Preparations required for Ct coronary angiography

Before doing your CCTA, your doctor might advise against eating or drinking anything. Before the test, you could be requested to stay away from working out or consuming caffeine. If you have experienced any previous episodes of cardiac disease, allergies, or any other medical conditions or have been recently diagnosed viral sickness, you must inform your physician. Before arranging CCTA, you must let your physician know whether you are pregnant, think you might be pregnant, or have recently delivered a baby.

The medicines that you are taking should be disclosed to your doctor. Taking off eyeglasses, piercings, jewellery, and other metal items is important because they may cause issues with the CT scan working and lead to the production of unclear images.

Benefits of CT coronary angiography

Some of the benefits of a CT coronary angiography are presented here:

• It is a non-invasive and safe technique.
• The ability of cardiac CT angiogram or CT angiography for heart to scan soft tissue, bone, and blood arteries simultaneously is an important benefit. It is, therefore, suitable to find the causes of your suffering, such as an aortic injury or blood clots inside the lungs.
• Unlike, traditional X-rays, CT imaging offers incredibly detailed pictures of a variety of tissues.
• CT scans are quick and easy to perform.
• It Ct coronary angiography or cardiac CT angiogram is economical for a variety of medical issues.
• A CT scan leaves no trace of radiation in the patient’s body.
• No acute negative effects are expected from the X-rays employed for CT imaging.
• CT coronary angiography is less responsive to patient movements than MRI.
• Compared with MRIs, CT scans can be performed even if you have some type of implanted healthcare device.

Risks of Ct coronary angiography

The contrast substance used in CT angiography of the heart may make the kidney’s function worse in some individuals with kidney failure. Skin harm or harm to nerves and blood vessels may occur if the injected contrast solution spills out of the blood vessel and spreads underneath the skin where the IV is inserted. The technician should be notified right away if discomfort is experienced in the arm near the intravenous line during the administration of the contrast dye.

Radiation overexposure always carries a small risk of developing cancer. If there’s a slight chance that a woman is pregnant, she should always disclose this possibility to the X-ray or CT technician because radiation exposure during these procedures can harm the developing foetus. Infants shouldn’t be breastfed for 24 to 48 hours after receiving an intravenous contrast medium (dye). Iodine-containing contrast materials rarely cause severe allergic reactions.

Limitations of CT coronary angiography

This method is not deemed to be suitable for patients with irregular heartbeats or those who are significantly overweight because there is a possibility of obtaining poor image quality. If an obstruction is discovered during a CCTA, it can’t be treated at the same time. Because they are prone to requiring medical attention, individuals with an elevated risk of developing coronary artery disease (CAD) and common symptoms might prefer to have coronary angiography rather than CCTA. If there are numerous patches of old, hardened plaque, which is sometimes common in older individuals, CCTA findings might be challenging to understand.