Coronary CT is good for ruling out coronary artery disease and coronary angiography is good for confirming coronary artery disease.
Coronary CT is a non-invasive test compared to coronary angiography, which is simple to perform, low risk and easy for patients to accept. Coronary CT has a high negative predictive value, if the coronary CT suggests that there is no stenosis of blood vessels, the diagnosis of coronary heart disease can be excluded. However, if there is stenosis, the prediction of coronary stenosis is not as accurate as coronary angiography, and the degree of stenosis will be affected by severe vascular calcification. Therefore, it is a test to rule out coronary artery disease.
Coronary angiography is an invasive test, an interventional procedure, in which a guide wire is passed through the radial artery to release a contrast medium to observe the coronary artery, and to determine the extent and nature of plaque distribution in the coronary artery wall, which is far more important than coronary CT. Coronary angiography has a high positive diagnostic value, and it is the gold standard for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Therefore, it is a confirmatory test for coronary heart disease.
The two tests are not absolutely good or bad when compared individually, and the better test should be chosen according to the patient’s own condition.