Objective To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of subtraction-coronary computed tomographic angiography (Sub-CCTA) for coronary artery stenosis. Methods A total of 40 patients with suspected coronary heart disease (356 coronary artery segments) were enrolled as study subjects. All patients underwent digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA), followed by Sub-CCTA image processing. Taking DSA as the reference standard, the diagnostic efficacy of CCTA and Sub-CCTA for coronary artery stenosis was evaluated. And the diagnostic consistency was assessed using the Kappa test. Results There was no statistically significant difference in the detection rate of coronary artery stenosis among CCTA, Sub-CCTA and DSA (P>0.05). However, CCTA and Sub-CCTA showed a higher detection rate for mild stenosis but a lower detection rate for severe stenosis than DSA (P<0.05). Using DSA as the reference standard, CCTA showed moderate agreement with DSA in diagnosing coronary artery stenosis (Kappa=0.468), while Sub-CCTA showed good agreement (Kappa=0.706). Of the 356 coronary artery segments, 204 segments with plaques were detected by CCTA. There was a statistically significant difference in the detection rate of coronary artery stenosis with plaques between CCTA and Sub-CCTA (P<0.05). Among them, the stenosis detection rate of CCTA was higher than that of Sub-CCTA in coronary artery segments with calcified plaques and mixed plaques (P<0.05), whereas no statistically significant difference was found between CCTA and Sub-CCTA in coronary artery segments with non-calcified plaques (P>0.05). Using DSA as the reference standard, CCTA showed poor agreement with DSA in diagnosing coronary artery stenosis with plaques (Kappa=0.223), whereas Sub-CCTA showed moderate agreement (Kappa=0.618). Conclusion The detection rates of coronary artery stenosis by CCTA and Sub‑CCTA were comparable to those by DSA. CCTA showed moderate agreement with DSA in diagnosing coronary artery stenosis, whereas Sub-CCTA showed good agreement. In the presence of coronary artery plaques, Sub‑CCTA demonstrated superior diagnostic efficacy for coronary artery stenosis compared with CCTA.