CLINICAL IMPORTANCE OF CORONARY CALCIFICATION DETECTED BY CT

Coronary calcifications appear in advanced atheromatous lesions therefore fluoroscopy is useful for the detection of the atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (Aldrich et al., 1979). However, the detection of coronary calcification by fluoroscopy is difficult in the case of obesity or thick chest wall and also impaired by the background structures including bone and other intrathoracic calcifications. X-ray CT is more advantageous than fluoroscopy in the detection of coronary calcification. It can eliminate the interference from background structures and clearly demonstrates calcified sites of the coronary artery. Therefore, we investigated the clinical usefulness in the detection of coronary calcification with X-ray CT.