Researchers claim to have found a way of decreasing the amount of radiation that a patient is exposed to during a CT scan.
A study conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin compared the use of prospective and retrospective electrocardiogram (ECG) gating scans.
Dr Dennis Foley, lead author of the article, found that radiation levels were three times higher with retrospective gating and noted that the prospective method was safer because it is not done through the arteries.
He said: "Our study is significant because it shows radiologists are able to significantly decrease the radiation dose delivered to the patient during CT angiography."
Retrospective ECG gating is a type of angiography where the radiation beam is left on throughout the procedure, whereas it is only turned on intermittently during a prospective scan.
Last week, a study by Dr Ricardo Cury indicated that a CT scan could be used to detect both coronary artery stenosis and myocardial ischemia at the same time and still give off less radiation than a SPECT stress perfusion study that would otherwise be used.
