Imaging of Cardiac Function by Computed Tomography

Cardiac computed tomography has made substantial progress in the past years. While the main application is imaging of the coronary arteries, CT has the potential to provide functional information of the heart. Typically, 10 datasets of the heart are created throughout the cardiac cycle, and can be analyzed manually or with dedicated software algorithms to obtain ventricular volumes, as well as regional and global left and right ventricular function. Numerous comparisons to reference methods such as echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging have demonstrated high accuracy of computed tomography and very close correlation regarding volumes and ejection fraction. This article outlines image acquisition methods, practical aspects of image acquisition and reconstruction, as well as validation studies of functional cardiac analysis by computed tomography. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.