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Written by Michael Bassett
While the technology behind cardiac advanced visualization (AV) can create some amazing images, it provides much more than just a “wow” factor. Radiologists and cardiologists rely on it to help them increase productivity and workflow and reduce costs, diagnose more quickly and accurately, and better communicate results with referring physicians and their patients.
Routine CT scanning of the renal arteries and kidneys of middle-aged individuals can commonly present radiographic abnormalities, but the majority of the imaging findings are not perceived to be harmful enough to prevent kidney donation, according to a January study published online in Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Bassetlaw Hospital in Nottinghamshire, England, which is part of the U.K.'s Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has installed a Magentom Avanto 1.5 Tesla MRI, Artis zee Multipurpose C-arm and Somatom Sensation CT from Siemens Healthcare.
Serial volumetric analysis of aortic aneurysm with nonenhanced CT serves as an adequate screening test for endoleak, causing volumetric increase of more than 2 percent from the volume seen at the previous examination, according to a retrospective analysis published this month in Radiology.
CT angiography (CTA) can identify abnormalities and injury beyond the pulmonary arteries, including broken bones and heart disease in pediatric patients, according to a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
In a real-world clinical setting, the negative predictive value of 64-slice coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is very high and helpful in predicting freedom from events for up to three years, according to a study in the Aug. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. The researchers also found cost-savings benefits associated with CCTA.
The risk of acute nephropathy after intracerebral hemorrhage is not increased by use of CT angiography (CTA), and the risk of in-hospital contrast induced nephropathy might be overestimated, according to a study in this month's issue of Stroke.
Patients demonstrating positively remodeled coronary segments with low-attenuation plaques on CT angiography (CTA) were at a higher risk of acute coronary syndrome developing over time when compared with patients having lesions without these characteristics, according to a study in the July 30 issue in the Journal in the American College of Cardiology.
GE Healthcare has launched its Alcyone Technology, a nuclear cardiology SPECT platform combining cadmium zinc telluride detectors, focused pinhole collimation, 3D reconstruction and stationary data acquisition.
CHICAGO—When the New England Journal of Medicine published the CorE-64 study in the Nov. 26th issue, which produced positive results for cardiac CT angiography, an accompanying editorial questioned whether the technology had enough clinical evidence to warrant widespread CMS reimbursements. Udo Hoffmann, MD, director of CT research at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, explains the importance of the trial and analyzes the editorial’s commentary.
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A positive correlation between post-procedural myocardial injury and volume and fraction of low-attenuation plaque within target lesions measured by multidetector CT angiography after elective PCI was discovered by Tadayuki Uetani, MD, from the department of cardiology at Chubu Rosai Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, and colleagues.
Medrad (Booth 4209) is highlighting its Certegra product platform, including Certegra P3T products and Certegra Connect.PACS, at the 2009 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago this month.
Shelagh B. Coutts, MD, was granted the first Distinguished Clinician Scientist 2009 award by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health and AstraZeneca Canada during the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress this week in Edmonton, Alberta.
Sixty-four-slice CT angiography can be used as the initial imaging technique for detecting and planning the treatment of intracranial aneurysms, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.
Philips Healthcare has made the first commercial shipments of its MX 16-slice CT scanner, including to University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center in Chardon, Ohio.
GE Healthcare has netted the first installations of its new cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)-based SPECT/CT nuclear cardiology camera featuring Alcyone technology, the Discovery NM/CT 570c. The system has been installed at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, and University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland.
A new technology involving the fusion of four different types of images to create a 3D brain map has helped University of Cincinnati physicians remove a fist-sized tumor from the brain of an Indiana woman.
The Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) has issued guidelines to establish a consensus of the minimally required standards for appropriate coronary CT angiography (CCTA) acquisition, as well as to provide recommendations for methods to avoid unnecessarily high radiation exposure, to be printed in the May/June issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography.
The FDA has granted 510(k) clearance of the NeuViz 16 multi-slice CT system to Neuisys Imaging System Solutions.
CHICAGO—CT again is in the hot seat at the 94th annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) due to a New England Journal of Medicine editorial that accompanies the CorE 64 study published November 27th that questions whether cardiac CT angiography yet has enough clinical evidence to support its CMS widespread reimbursement. In March, CMS chose to continue local coverage determination for CCTA.
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The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.