Preface to the Second Edition Despite worldwide efforts to assess and control cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac diseases and in particular coronary artery disease (CAD) are still the foremost causes of death in the developed countries of Western Europe, North America and Asia and are becoming increasingly common in Eastern Europe and the developing world (Deanfield 2001). Approximately one in five deaths is currently related to cardiac disease in Europe and the US. Nearly 500,000 deaths caused by CAD are reported every year in the US, over 600,000 in Europe, 170,000 of these in Germany alone. Over 12 million US citizens have a history of CAD, while every year 1. 1 million US and 300,000 German citizens suffer a coronary attack and more than 40% will die as a result of these attacks. Every second patient dies without prior symptoms and, in most cases, myocardial infarction occurs without warning. Once a blockage of the coronary arteries has occurred, death may ensue within a few minutes, even before hospitalization is possible. These alarming statistics highlight an acute need for tools to diagnose cardiac and coronary artery disease. Presently, the gold-standard mod- ity for diagnosis of CAD is invasive selective coronary angiography. More than 2.

Invasive coronary imaging.- Coronary anatomy.- Cardiac and Cardiothoracic Anatomy in CT.- Technical aspects of cardiovascular and cardiac diagnosis with CT.- Multi-slice CT Technology.- Technical Aspects and Applications of Fast Multislice Cardiac CT.- Principles of Multi-slice Cardiac CT Imaging.- Clinical Examination Protocols with 4- to 64-Slice CT.- Clinical Examination Protocols with 4- to 64-Slice CT.- Computed tomography of the coronary arteries.- Image Visualization and Post-processing Techniques.- Clinical Indications.- Current and Future Clinical Potential.- Risk Assessment with Coronary Artery Calcium Screening.- Detection and Exclusion of Coronary Artery Stenosis.- Assessment and Interpretation of Atherosclerotic Coronary Plaques.- Coronary CT Angiography in Patients with Chest Pain.- Evaluation of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts.- Patency Control of Coronary Stents.- Evaluation of the Coronary Anomaly, Fistula, Aneurysm, and Dissection.- Diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease in Adults and Children.- Evaluation of Ventricular Function Parameters.- Imaging and Diagnosis of Cardiac Valves.- Visualization of Cardiac Tumors and Masses.- Imaging of the Pulmonary Veins in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.- Potential of Myocardial Perfusion and Viability Studies.- Cardiothoracic Multi-Slice CT in the Emergency Department.- Scan techniques for cardiac and coronary artery imaging with multislice CT.- Future Technical Developments in Cardiac CT.