One scan for all: extended role of cardiac CT angiography in acute myocardial infarction

Background Cardiac computed-tomographic angiography (CTA) has gained widespread acceptance as a useful non-invasive technique in the assessment of coronary artery disease. Although most interest has focused on coronary vessels, analysis of myocardial perfusion, left ventricular wall motion, ejection fraction and left ventricular structure can easily be performed at the same time allowing comprehensive assessment of anatomy and function in a single examination. We present a case of acute ST elevation myocardial infarction where cardiac catheterization was deferred, but assessment by CTA permitted a management plan to be constructed using rest perfusion and blood pool inversion analyses of the dataset obtained during the coronary artery study.