Cardiac diseases and in particular coronary artery disease are the leading cause of death and morbidity in the industrialized countries. The development of reliable cardiac imaging techniques is considered a key issue in improving patient care. The introduction of multi-slice computed tomography in 1998 represented a breakthrough of CT technology in cardiac imaging. For the first time, widely available CT systems can be used for non-invasive, angiographic assessment of the heart and the coronary arteries. This book presents and discusses the technical concepts, the potential spectrum of applications and the future perspectives of multi-slice CT in cardiac imaging based on the experience of internationally leading clinical institutions. It shows that this new modality has the potential to become an important and robust tool for non-invasive and early diagnosis of cardiac diseases, thus complementing invasive and non-invasive imaging modalities in clinical routine in the near future.
