Coronary Computed Tomography (CTA)

Heart attacks often occur without warning. A new imaging technology called Coronary Computed Tomography (a specialised type of X-ray test) is used to scan the heart in just minutes to detect deposits of cholesterol in the heart arteries that may lead to a heart attack. This is an out-patient procedure that takes 20-30 minutes. You will be requested not to eat or drink anything in the 4 hours before the scan.

Coronary CTA provides pictures of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart muscle, in a non-invasive manner. It enables your cardiologist to look for narrowings, some of which cannot be detected by the more traditional exercise testing but which cause around three quarters of all heart attacks. Detecting these narrowings early is important as medications can be prescribed to prevent an impending heart attack. Based on the results from the CTA, your surgeon will order further tests to decide any course of treatment.

We use the latest generation, state-of-the-art Toshiba 64-Slice Coronary CTA scanner, which can simultaneously acquire 64 image slices of the heart in one minute, resulting in highly detailed images of the coronary arteries and the heart.