Coronary plaque quantification by multi-slice computed tomography

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the main causes of human deaths in the western world. Usually, patients are being diagnosed by ECG analysis first, after which for asymptomatic patients additional tests are necessary. Ultimately an imaging procedure might be necessary to image the coronary arteries. Until a decade ago invasive coronary angiography was the standard imaging method for this. Since then, minimal invasive coronary angiography by multi-slice computed tomography (MSCTCA) became available and has been a highly investigated imaging technique and may become a standard imaging tool for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). The three-dimensional (3D) nature of MSCT-CA allows 3D image reconstruction from which quantitative parameters of the coronary arteries and plaques can be derived.