Normal anatomy of the vessels of the heart with 16-row multislice computed tomography

Abstract

Nowadays, cardiac imaging is not part of the clinical routine for the radiologist. Multislice Computed Tomography (MSCT) with 4 rows allowed to start the non invasive evaluation of coronary arteries. The introduction of 16-row MSCT has significantly improved the performance and diagnostic accuracy of this technique, so far that MSCT angiography has been advocated as a potential clinical tool for the study of coronary artery disease. Therefore, it is mandatory to understand normal cardiac and coronary anatomy in order to evaluate the presence and severity of coronary artery disease. The anatomical visualisation provided by MSCT differs from the one of conventional coronary angiography because it is not a simple "lumenology" but it is capable to provide information on the vessel wall, until now only achieved by invasive techniques such as intravascular ultrasound or optical coherence tomography, and on neighbouring structures. Aim of this works is to provide the basics of anatomy of the vessels of the heart applied to MSCT.