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The new Coronary CT Angiogram (CTA) procedures last week as the staff at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center (CGRMC) performed several dry runs with volunteer “patients” to become familiar with the routine.

The CTA procedure is done on CGRMC’s new 64-slice CT scanner. There are two primary applications, and two big advantages, to the CTA. It allows doctors to measure calcification in the coronary arteries and to measure the heart’s output, or ejection fraction, the percentage of blood in the heart that is forced out with each heartbeat.

“This exam has a high negative predictive value,” James explained. Essentially, that means it is very accurate in ruling out problems with calcification in the arteries and with heart function. That means patients won’t have to be held for observation for a day or more if their CTA tests show good results, and many patients won’t have to undergo cardiac catheterization that turns out not to have been essential.

CTA, by comparison, involves nothing more intrusive than an IV through which medication is used to slow the heart rate a little and through which a contrast is injected; both help clarify the images. The patient is awake, alert and comfortable throughout the procedure. And it doesn’t cause the kind of claustrophobia some patients experience with CT scans because the new 64-slice scanner doesn’t fully engulf the patient in a narrow opening like earlier CT scanners.

The CT scanner acquires literally thousands of images in a few minutes, providing motionless pictures of the heart and its arteries. The processed data is shown in images that give a 3-D reconstruction of the heart that can be turned on the screen for full viewing. Different areas can be highlighted to give additional detail, allowing doctors to detect blockages that might lead to serious conditions, including a heart attack.

Source: CGRMC

Discuss more about CT in the CT user group.