Siemens Medical Systems has released HeartView CT, a cardiac imaging technology that enhances visualization of soft plaque. HeartView CT offers a number of other capabilities as well, including a new calcium scoring technique, detection of significant coronary artery stenosis, mediastinal vessel and heart morphology, and functional heart imaging, according to Iselin, NJ-based Siemens.
HeartView CT uses an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal to synchronize the acquisition and/or reconstruction of data to produce virtually motion-free images of the heart, according to Siemens. With HeartView CT and an intravenous injection of a contrast agent, Siemens believes that imaging of the coronary arteries to identify stenosis and/or soft plaque is now possible using a highly reproducible methodology.
The technique also offers a potential alternative follow-up method for patients who have undergone invasive therapy such as grafts, stents, or percutaneous transcatheter angioplasty (PTCA), according to Siemens. Non-CT techniques that provide this type of information, including coronary catheterization and intravascular ultrasound, are relatively invasive.
HeartView CT was developed in collaboration with multiple research institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and works with the vendor’s Somatom Volume Zoom and Volume Access CT scanners.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersOctober 18, 2000
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