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In the case of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, its frequency of occurrence among young people have been gradually increasing, thus the importance of evaluating and quick diagnosis of chest discomfort or chest pain and difficulty breathing in everyday life is also growing.
Coronary angiography, which is commonly used when examining chest pain, is the most intuitive test method with high accuracy but can be a burden for the patient due to its invasive procedure.
The Cardio-cerebrovascular Center of Incheon Nasaret International Hospital has a state-of-the-art coronary artery CT scan which can automatically recognize irregular heartbeat and take accurate images to give a correct diagnosis. Coronary artery CT provides great advantage in that it can give sufficient information to medical staff as well as patients by accurately reproducing the location, length, and extent of narrowed blood vessels. In addition to identifying the causes of chest pain or angina.
It is possible to diagnose certain cardiac functions, structural malformations of the heart, valve diseases, damages to the myocardium, pericarditis*, pericardial effusion or other various heart related diseases. Since it can also evaluate the surgical status after coronary artery bypass surgery, it can be said that the medical benefit that can obtained with just 30 minutes of imaging is much greater than that of other tests.
*Pericarditis is swelling and irritation of the thin, saclike tissue surrounding your heart
The CT scan ushers in a new era of physiologic imaging with 2mm up to 16 cm of z-axis coverage compared with only 4 cm of volumetric images to the fullest in the past. Its cutting edge technology also allows HD 640 slices every rotation capturing a moving heart in full and guarantees patient safety providing a lower dose solution by 75% decrease. 320 detector row scanning successfully realizes 0.5mm of ultra-fine images.
Dr. Park Il, a cardiologist at the Heart Center at Nazaret International Hospital, said, “With previous equipments, it was quite difficult to test precisely those patients who were suffering from severe arrhythmia or heart-rate changes. However, even in such cases, the CT scan, which can automatically recognize heartbeats and accurately diagnose, allows safer and more accurate examination of the coronary arteries before performing coronary angiography.”
If you are considering to receive heart disease examinations due to chest pains, it is important to perform the most suitable and helpful tests for you with careful treatment from a cardiologist in order to prevent the risk of heart disease.
Nasaret International Hospital Cardiology Center Director Park Il (Cardiologist)
