A method and a system are disclosed for computed tomography illustration of the movement of a heart in the cardiac cycle with the aid of a spiral CT. In the method, a patient is administered a contrast medium via an electronically controllable apparatus. A stationary prescan of a cardiac artery is carried out in order to determine the sufficient filling of the artery with the automatically applied contrast medium. When a sufficient contrast medium filling is detected, the current heart rate of the heart being examined is measured, and a maximum possible feed rate for a spiral scan and a duration of the spiral scan are determined on the basis of the current heart rate. Subsequently, the spiral scan is carried out over the heart region with the maximum possible feed rate.