Dear AuntMinnie Member,
Both multislice CT and MRI are developing into clinically viable, less invasive alternatives to cardiac catheterization for heart imaging. But what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of each?
We try to answer the question in our Cardiac Imaging Digital Community this week with an article by staff writer Wayne Forrest, who reports on a recent presentation by Dr. Richard White, chairman of the radiology department at the University of Florida-Shands Jacksonville.
Dr. White believes that CT angiography (CTA) may not be the best option for acute myocardial infarction cases, some of which might be better sent to the cath lab, while others might benefit from the different acquisitions possible with MRI.
CT excels in its ability to image patients with implanted hardware, and it is also carving out a role as a diagnostic tool for coronary CTA of patients with chest discomfort. Meanwhile, MRI's ability to conduct dynamic tissue tagging gives it the nod in several applications, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Get the rest of the story by clicking here.
Another recent article in the community places the lifetime cost of treating single-vessel coronary artery disease in women at $1 million per person. Find out how they arrived at the figure by clicking here.
Get these stories and more in our Cardiac Imaging Digital Community, at cardiac.auntminnie.com.
