[Computer multidetector tomography of coronary arteries. State-of-the-art. Part 1. Technical aspects].

The study of atherosclerotic disease in coronary arteries is fundamental since it is the first cause of death in the Western hemisphere. The gold standard for its diagnosis is invasive angiography, but it contributes to an increase in costs for this group of patients. Nowadays fourth generation computed tomography (CT) equipments can construct acquisition data of up to 256 images in only 400 milliseconds (ms), which is 900 to 1000 times faster than first generation apparatus.