Topic Tuesday!

2 days ago2 min read

Welcome back to Topic Tuesday! Today, we will be continuing on our imaging theme of the month and covering CT scans. Our friends Purab and Adham have already covered echocardiography and cardiac catheterization, so make sure to take a look at those posts if you haven’t already!

A CT, or computed tomography or CAT scan is an imaging technique that takes hundreds of cross-sectional images and combines them to create a 3D image of your body. Cardiac CT scans can show your physicians details of bones, muscles, organs, and blood vessels that 2D imaging techniques, such as X-rays, can’t show.

Your care team will instruct you on the details of preparing for your scan beforehand. In general, you will be instructed to avoid eating and drinking caffeine a few hours before your scan, and potentially hold off on some medications. During your CT scan, you will lay down on a table that will move through a doughnut-shaped scanner to allow for the cross-sectional images to be taken.

For assessing the aorta and aneurysms, a CT angiogram is commonly used, which is slightly different than a simple cardiac CT scan. While cardiac CT scans are completely noninvasive, CT angiogram scans involve injecting a dye (or contrast) into your arm via an IV to help highlight your blood vessels and tissues for the scan. The scan itself is quick and will typically take 10 minutes or less.

These CT scans can be used for measuring the size of your aorta to detect any aneurysms or dissections. A CT scan is a key diagnostic tool in assisting physicians in making the initial diagnosis of an aortic aneurysm. Following initial diagnosis, a CT scan is a critical tool used for surveillance of your aneurysm over time. Depending on the size and location of your aneurysm as well as other risk factors, your surgeon will typically recommend repeat CT scans every 6 months or 1 year to continue to monitor and measure your aneurysm to assess for any growth.