Quantitative and AI-Enhanced Cardiac CT: Practical Insights

Quantitative and AI-Enhanced Cardiac CT: Practical Insights reflects the transformation of cardiac computed tomography from simple stenosis detection to a comprehensive, non-invasive tool for assessing atherosclerotic plaque burden, lesion-level haemodynamics, myocardial blood flow, tissue composition, and AI-driven risk prediction. While these capabilities are advancing rapidly, the clinical literacy needed to interpret and apply them remains underdeveloped in current literature.

Written for practising cardiologists, cardiac radiologists, cardiac imaging subspecialists, advanced fellows, and cardiac CT practitioners, this postgraduate-level textbook provides a rigorous, clinically grounded, decision-oriented framework for the full spectrum of quantitative and AI-enhanced cardiac CT applications.

What This Book Covers

Across seven parts and 26 chapters, the book is built on a central principle: quantitative imaging is valuable only when it changes, refines, or confirms a clinical decision.

Part I covers acquisition, reconstruction, protocol optimisation, data standards, validation, and governance for safe quantitative and AI implementation.

Part II focuses on atherosclerotic burden, including coronary artery calcium scoring, structured reporting, non-calcified plaque characterisation, residual risk, and integration of CAC into preventive pathways.

Part III addresses CAD-RADS 2.0, semiquantitative and quantitative plaque analysis, prognosis, therapy guidance, reproducibility, artefacts, and quality assurance.

Part IV examines CT-derived fractional flow reserve, CT myocardial perfusion, late iodine enhancement, extracellular volume quantification, and integration of functional and tissue metrics into management decisions.

Part V provides a practical AI primer covering image quality, segmentation, workflow automation, prognosis, risk stratification, human-versus-AI conflict scenarios, and the ethical, regulatory, and governance issues surrounding trustworthy AI.

Part VI explores clinical integration, including how to build a quantitative CT service, pathways for stable CAD and heart failure, serial imaging, therapy monitoring, structured reporting, and MDT integration.

Part VII presents case-based masterclasses on plaque and CT-FFR uncertainty, perfusion and tissue characterisation, and AI successes, pitfalls, and near-miss scenarios.

Distinctive Features

Every chapter is written to postgraduate academic standards with referenced evidence, structured tables, and clinical decision flowcharts. A comprehensive back matter section includes rapid-reference quantitative thresholds, reporting templates, quality assurance checklists, and practical decision frameworks for reporting and MDT use.

Who Should Read This Book

This book is essential for cardiologists and cardiac radiologists reporting quantitative CT studies, interventional cardiologists interpreting CT-FFR and plaque data, heart failure specialists using CT tissue characterisation, advanced imaging trainees preparing for subspecialty accreditation, and researchers in quantitative cardiovascular imaging and AI validation.

This is not a vendor manual or a physics textbook. It is a clinical reasoning guide designed to help readers apply quantitative and AI tools wisely, interpret outputs critically, and translate complex multiparametric findings into decisions that improve patient outcomes.