Dear Cardiac Imaging Insider,
The American Heart Association has waded into the debate over the use of CT and MRI for heart imaging, issuing a statement that discourages use of the modalities in screening asymptomatic patients for heart disease.
In a new report in Circulation , the AHA statement cites numerous issues facing the clinical use of CT and MRI for cardiac imaging, including continuing technical challenges and efficacy concerns, as well as the need for more multicenter and multivendor studies. In particular, the authors advise CTA and MRA screening only for individuals at intermediate risk of coronary artery disease.
Unfortunately, the report is already outdated, given that it's based on two-year-old clinical data, one author told AuntMinnie.com. You'll find more details on this important statement by clicking here.
Of course, cutting-edge technology inhabits a universe all its own. At the recent Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS) meeting in Barcelona, researchers compared the latest advanced imaging techniques aimed at simplifying exam interpretation and disease detection.
Among them, researchers from Hamburg, Germany, proposed an automated two-step method for choosing the best reconstruction phases and eliminating motion artifact in 3D rotational angiography. Their method uses the geometry of coronary arteries to find the phases with the least variance, then overlays and molds different projections to each other to reduce blur. The impressive early results are featured in this issue's Insider Exclusive.
Taking a different tack, researchers from Sweden developed a system to virtually pull the arteries free of each other, and from obscuring heart structures, for easier evaluation. Find out how they did it by clicking here.
In echocardiography, AuntMinnie.com staff writer Erik L. Ridley reports on a team that found a high level of safety in echo contrast agents, in spite of the recent controversy over U.S. regulation of the products. The results can be found here.
For heart imaging applications, MDCT scanners are no longer an undifferentiated commodity. Dr. Mathias Prokop from the Netherlands explains how the various fourth-generation scanners compare and contrast.
For all the news that matters in heart imaging, you're invited to scroll down and stay tuned to your Cardiac Imaging Digital Community.
