Imaging of the heart with computed tomography.

Imaging of the heart with computed tomography (CT) was already introduced in the 1980Is and has meanwhile entered clinical routine as a consequence of the rapid evolution of CT technology during the last decade. In this review article, we give an overview on the technology and clinical performance of different CT-scanner generations used for cardiac imaging, such as Electron Beam CT (EBCT), single-slice CT und multi-detector row CT (MDCT) with 4, 16 and 64 simultaneously acquired slices. We identify the limitations of current CT-scanners, indicate potential of improvement and discuss alternative system concepts such as CT with area detectors and dual source CT (DSCT).