Noninvasive Coronary Angiography With a Prototype 256-Row Area Detector Computed Tomography System Comparison With Conventional Invasive Coronary Angiography

[...]CT systems are equipped with 2 sets of X-ray tubes and detectors, allowing images to be acquired at a temporal resolution of 83 ms with the half-scan reconstruction method (4,5). Because multiple cardiac cycles are needed to depict the coronary arteries when helical scanning is employed, it is likely that 256-row CT will have advantages in terms of the continuity of coronary artery images. The scan speed should be improved to the same level as that of a 64-row CT system by the time the system reaches the market. Because the number of subjects in this study was small (10 patients), owing to the short evaluation period, when the 256-row CT system becomes commercially available with these functions provided, it will be necessary to evaluate its diagnostic capabilities in a larger number of patients.