Topic

Coronary CT Angiography


AHA statement: CCTA has triage niche in chest pain patients

Top Stories | Thursday, August 26 2010
With the advent of 64-slice CT, coronary CT angiography (CCTA) exams of low-risk patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain are feasible given the nearly 100 percent negative predictive value of the test, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) published in the Aug. 17 issue of Circulation.
 

JNM: Software packages for 82Rb-gated PET/CT differ on LVEF data

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, June 29 2010
The reference range of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and LV volumes from gated 82Rb PET/CT varies significantly among available software programs and therefore cannot be used interchangeably, according to a study in the June issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
 

CT Screening: Where Do We Stand?

Cover Story | Monday, June 21 2010
Written by C.P. Kaiser
Ten years ago, it was nearly impossible to go through the day without seeing an advertisement for whole-body CT screening. Today it’s a different story. The radiation dose exposure from CT scanning has come under intense scrutiny and the value of CT screening must be proved in rigorous trials before many payors, especially Medicare, will consider reimbursing for an exam.
 

SCCT selects five finalists for young investigator awards

Industry News | Monday, June 07 2010
The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) has named five finalists for its fourth annual Young Investigator Awards.
 

JACC: Handheld devices for CCTA evaluation show positive results

Top Stories | Tuesday, May 11 2010
Interpreting coronary CT angiography (CCTA) images on mobile handheld devices equipped with medical image evaluation software provides high quality assessments in the detection of coronary artery stenosis; however, security and privacy must be maintained, a study published in the May edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging found.
 

AJR: CCTA is cost-effective alternative to cardiact cath for CAD evaluation

Clinical Studies | Wednesday, April 21 2010
Non-invasive coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is a cost-effective alternative to invasive cardiac catheterization in the care of patients who have positive stress test results, but less than a 50 percent chance of having coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a study in the May issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
 

AJR: Screening value of Framingham Risk Score called into question

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, April 20 2010
If subjects are excluded from further screening because they are in the Framingham low-risk category, almost two-thirds of women and a quarter of men with substantial atherosclerosis will be missed, wrote the authors of a study that appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. 
 

Delaware BlueCross scrutinized after requiring pre-approval of imaging tests

Top Stories | Monday, April 19 2010
BlueCross BlueShield of Delaware is under fire from several lawmakers after it put forth new criteria that will require imaging scans, such as CT and MRI, to be pre-approved by a third-party company MedSolutions, which will determine whether or not the test is “appropriate” for a patient.
 

ACC: Making cuts to rad exposure does not equal loss of diagnostic quality

Conference News | Tuesday, April 06 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
With six million people in the U.S. currently undergoing CT scans and the number of CT scans alone experiencing an annual growth rate of about 11-13 percent between 2000-2005, the exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation is quite concerning, reported Kavitha Chinnaiyan, MD, program director of advanced cardiac imaging education within the division of cardiology at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., during the ACC.10 conference in Atlanta last month.
 

Montefiore nabs CV imaging luminary Garcia to chair cardiology

Executive Announcements | Thursday, April 01 2010
Mario J. Garcia, MD, a cardiologist who helped develop and clinically implement cardiac CT angiography, has been recruited as co-director of the Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center and as chief of cardiology within the department of medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
 

ACC: Calcium scoring protocol adds no benefit to CT in predicting CAD events

Conference News | Monday, March 29 2010
In patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), combined coronary artery calcium scoring and coronary CT angiography (CCTA) are no more beneficial than the CCTA protocol alone in the prediction of major adverse cardiac events, based on the results of a poster presentation at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference in Atlanta earlier this month.
 

AJR: Minimal padding during CCTA can reduce dose by 45%

Clinical Studies | Friday, March 19 2010
Eliminating or reducing “padding” duration by 100 msec during ECG-triggered coronary CT angiography (CCTA) can reduce dose by 45 percent and still manage to maintain image quality and interpretability, according to a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
 

NEJM Feature: Are too many angiograms being performed on patients w/o CAD?

Top Stories | Wednesday, March 10 2010
Written by Justine Cadet
Slightly more than one-third of patients without known disease, who underwent elective cardiac catheterization, had obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) out of nearly 400,000 patients at 663 sites, based on study findings published March 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, in an interview, Timothy D. Henry, MD, from Minneapolis Heart Institute, said that when reviewing the study’s data in its entirety, it appears that most practices are performing these procedures properly.
 

Radiology: CT angiography proves cost-effective in chest pain diagnosis strategy

Clinical Studies | Wednesday, March 10 2010
A coronary CT angiography-only approach -- when factoring in a $20,000 threshold level for cost per correct diagnosis and $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year -- is the most cost-effective diagnostic strategy for the evaluation of patients presenting with stable chest pain without known coronary artery disease (CAD) with intermediate CAD prevalence, according to a decision analysis study published in the March issue of Radiology.
 

Rcadia’s CCTA computer-aided detection software nets CE Mark

Tuesday, March 09 2010
Rcadia Medical Imaging has been issued a CE Mark for its computer-aided detection software--the COR Analyzer system--that helps identify patients with significant coronary artery disease  by an analysis of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) studies.
 

SCCT now accepting young investigators award applications

Industry News | Thursday, February 25 2010
Sponsored by Toshiba America Medical Systems, the Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) is now accepting submissions for the fourth annual Young Investigator Awards.
 

Radiology: Volume scans during CCTA can reduce dose by 91%

Top Stories | Monday, February 22 2010
While coronary CT angiography (CCTA) can assist in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD), the radiation dose exposure  during an exam has been a problem. Using volume scans rather than helical scans has the potential to reduce dose by 91 percent, a study published in the March issue of Radiology found.
 

AIM: Multidetector CT bests MRI in ruling out coronary artery disease

Top Stories | Tuesday, February 02 2010
For ruling out coronary artery disease (CAD), multidetector CT (16-slice or more) is more accurate than MRI, according to a retrospective study in today’s Annals of Internal Medicine.
 

AJR: Patient characteristics may serve as image quality predictors of CT scans

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, December 22 2009
Image quality of multi-detector CT scans, when utilized for the noninvasive detection of coronary artery stenosis, can be significantly associated with patient characteristics, including ethnicity, body mass index, heart rate and the presence of breathing artifact, but not with coronary artery calcium (CAC) score at a patient level, based on a study in the January issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
 

EU Rad: CT computer-aided detection app may rule out stenosis

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, November 10 2009
New computer-aided detection software for coronary CT angiography could help physicians rule out narrowing of the coronary arteries in patients with low to moderate risk of coronary artery disease, according to a study published online Nov. 5 in European Radiology.
 
Web Exclusives

Feature: U.S. needs national strategy to curb imaging overutilization

Medical imaging overutilization--a growing concern in the U.S.--exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, while also adding to rising healthcare costs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology. In an interview, William R. Hendee, PhD, lead author, reviewed various methods by which medical imaging could be curtailed.

Radiology: Prelim study shows CE breast CT outperforms CT, mammo

Dedicated contrast-enhanced (CE) breast CT delivered significantly improved conspicuity of malignant breast lesions, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), compared with unenhanced breast CT and mammography, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

Radiology: Rad role may evolve as image-guided biopsies trend up

CT, ultrasound and MRI have helped shift biopsy techniques away from more invasive approaches toward image-guided percutaneous techniques, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology. The trend toward less-invasive approaches translates into enhanced safety and efficiency and could lead to more interaction between patients and radiologists.

CMS Webinar: Incentive payments to offset EHR adoption, not reimburse

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) EHR incentive payments are not considered reimbursement for money expended on EHR technology, but are intended to offset the cost associated with adoption and ongoing meaningful use, according to CMS during an Aug. 12 webinar.

CMS webinar: Eligible professionals can expect EHR incentives in 2011

Funding incentives for EHR use is the main goal of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) meaningful use initiative, and there are incentive programs for both hospitals and eligible professionals, according to Elizabeth Holland, health insurance specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke during a CMS-sponsored webinar Aug. 8.

Webinar: Stage 1 of meaningful use is for quality reporting acclimation

Stage 1 requirements for meaningful use incentives aim to strike a balance between the overall goal of EHR use and widespread adoption, while avoiding added work, said Jonathan Teich, MD, PhD, chief medical informatics officer at Elsevier Health Services, during a HIMSS webinar titled “Meaningful Use: Safety and Quality of Care.”

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