Cardiovascular disease due to atherosclerosis is the foremost cause of premature mortality and of disability-adjusted life years in Europe. Risk stratification management includes variety of clinical, laboratory and special diagnostic methods with different relevance. However, because global risk scores tend to underestimate risk in most persons, atherosclerosis imaging has been introduced for the refinement of stratification. Cardiac techniques including computed tomography (CT) have evolved rapidly for the study of cardiovascular structure and function. Multidetector CT is an additional relevant potential tool for assessment of coronary artery disease in selected patients and scientific data will be continuing to expand into clinical practice. Our findings showed that utility may be helpful also in non-diabetic patients with arterial hypertension or renal insufficiency and in elderly with degenerative aortic stenosis.
1. J.J. Goldberger M.E. Cain S.H. Hohnloser A.H. Kadish B.P. Knight M.S. Lauer B.J. Maron R.L. Page R.S. Passman D. Siscovick W.G. Stevenson D.P. Zipes 2008 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology Foundation/Heart Rhythm Society scientific statement on noninvasive risk stratification techniques for identifying patients at risk for sudden cardiac death Heart Rhythm 5 e1 e21.
2. A.J. Taylor 2010 Atlas of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography Saunders Elsevier Philadelphia.
3. M.J. Budoff J.S. Shinbane 2006 Cardiac CT imaging: Diagnosis of cardiovascular disease Springer-Verlag London.
4. M.J. Budoff J.M. Malpeso 2011 Is coronary artery calcium the key to assessment of cardiovascular risk in asymptomatic adults? J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr 5 12 15.
5. A.J. Taylor M. Cerqueira J.M. Hodgson D. Mark J. Min P. O'Gara G.D. Rubin 2010 ACCF/SCCT/ACR/AHA/ASE/ASNC/NASCI/SCAI/ SCMR 2010 appropriate use criteria for cardiac computed tomography: a report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force, the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, the American College of Radiology, the American Heart Association, the American Society of Echocardiography, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance J Am Coll Cardiol 56 1864 1894.
6. A.Y. Diab J. Gonsorcik A. Dobrovicova C. Gibarti M. Javorsky B. Stancak 2010 Degenerative aortic valve stenosis: diagnostic value of noninvasive evaluation in elderly Cardiology sk 19 369 374.