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Written by Gina Narcisi
QATLANTA - Originally piloted two years ago as the Improving Continuous Cardiac Care IC3 registry, the recently rebranded PINNACLE registry is the first and only ambulatory registry for cardiovascular conditions in this country, noted William Oetgen, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University, at the 59th annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference on March 16.
Written by Gina Narcisi
ATLANTA--“Within the past decade, our focus on women at risk has led to a clarification of understanding of the sex-specific factors that can influence our decisions and testing when it comes to women at risk or with symptoms of heart disease,” said Jennifer Mieres, MD, associate professor of medicine and director of nuclear cardiology at New York University School of Medicine, during a presentation at the 59th annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference.
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
Inter- and intra-observer reliabilities show disparities when SYNTAX scores are calculated by individual operators no matter their training and background. Researchers reported that multidisciplinary approaches should be considered when deciphering between CABG and PCI for patients with multivessil or left main coronary artery disease, according to a poster presentation featured during the 59th annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session yesterday in Atlanta.
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.
In a trial to assess gender differences in coronary plaque composition, researchers found that women presented less coronary segments with calcified and mixed plaque than men and had exhibited lower rates of coronary segments with stenosis equal to or fewer than 70 percent. The study was published in the Feb. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.
The European PACS market will grow by about 5.9 percent annually through 2015, according to a report published by GlobalData, a market research firm.
Physicians and providers interested in coronary artery disease (CAD) screening can now become certified as heart attack prevention/early detection specialists through an Internet-based education program.
Adding coronary artery calcium score testing with CT in patients with a normal SPECT scan could help to identify those at high long-term risk for cardiac events, in whom an earlier focus on aggressive risk factor modification and other medical therapies may be beneficial, according to new findings published in the Nov. 10 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The number of Americans admitted to hospitals for treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) declined by 31 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to statistics released Monday by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
SAN FRANCISCO—A debate, conducted at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium on Monday, highlighted the difficulties in assessing whether multidetector CT will soon be capable of accurately identifying vulnerable plaque.
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Written by Gina Narcisi
ATLANTA--In choosing the appropriate test, keeping clinical context in mind and understanding what the test indicates and what it does not indicate are key elements a physician must remember in selecting the correct imaging modality for the testing of myocardial viability, said Christopher Hanson, MD, professor of medicine and radiology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, during an imaging symposium at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference on Monday.
Written by Gina Narcisi
ATLANTA -- The presence of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) was found to be a significant predictor of adverse cardiac events, and multi-detector CT may be able to predict cardiac events in known or suspected CAD, according to researchers from the Division of Cardiology at Daegu Catholic University in Daegu, South Korea.
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.
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.
The absence of coronary calcification does not exclude obstructive stenosis or the need for revascularizations in patients suspected to have coronary artery disease (CAD), based on results of a substudy of the CORE 64 registry data published in the Feb. 16 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
When examining the correlation between carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and coronary artery disease (CAD), researchers found that the utilization of CMIT can predict CAD, according to a study published in the Dec. 31 issue of Cardiovascular Ultrasound (CVUS).
The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) will increase the reimbursement for PET myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) by 24 percent in the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2010.
Low-dose cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) allows for the accurate evaluation of coronary artery disease, but with significantly less effective radiation dose to patients compared with coronary angiography, according to a study in the October issue of Heart.
SAN FRANCISCO—Plaque morphology, specifically non-calcified and mixed coronary plaques, detected and characterized by coronary CT angiography (CCTA), provides incremental value in predicting all-cause mortality in symptomatic patients with non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), according to a poster presentation at the 2009 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium this week.
Merge Healthcare has completed its acquisition of Confirma, a developer of computer-aided detection (CAD) applications for MRI.
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Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation (AF). My onset of AF seems to have coincided with a mountain bike accident in the woods of North Carolina that resulted in some cracked ribs.
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).