Cardiac multi-slice computed tomography in evaluation of chest pain in hypertensive patients

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is a major risk factor for coronary heart diseases (CHDs) and stroke. Coronary computed tomography (CT) enables physicians to visualize the coronary vascular system with high specificity and sensitivity. Aim of the work: To evaluate the role of CT coronary angiography as a diagnostic tool in the assessment of chest pain in patients suffering from HTN. Patients and Methods: This prospective study was carried out on 30 patients with HTN presented with acute chest pain. Heart rate should be < 70 beat/min bpm spontaneously or beta-blocker induced then the patients subjected to multi slice CT angiography of coronary arteries. Results: 17 patients presented with typical chest pain (56.7%). The rest of were suffering from atypical chest pain (43.3%). The distribution of coronary lesions was: the most affected artery is the left anterior descending coronary artery followed by the right coronary artery. Sixty percent of patients had left anterior descending coronary lesion while 35 % had right coronary lesion. The left main coronary was affected in 20 % of patients. The left circumflex coronary was affected in 15 % of these patients. The ramus, D1, and D2 were the least affected. The non-coronary lesions were: aortic aneurysm (1 patient), pulmonary embolism (1 patient), and aortic dissection (1 patient).Conclusions: Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is a good fast reliable non-invasive diagnostic aid for hypertensive patients with acute chest pain.