Is CT recommended for heart disease?

Regular CT is not recommended for screening for heart disease, but for screening for heart disease, coronary CT imaging is recommended. This coronary CT imaging, also called 64-row or 320-row or 640-row spiral CT, is distinctly different from a normal enhanced CT exam in that a contrast medium is fed into a vein in the arm and a tomographic scan of the heart is performed. The software reconstructs the morphology of the coronary arteries, and then observes whether there is plaque in the coronary vessels, the degree of plaque stenosis, the location of plaque blockage and the area of plaque blockage. Multi-row spiral CT is sensitive and highly specific for the diagnosis of coronary artery lesions, and is usually one of the main tests for screening coronary heart disease.