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ATLANTA—A novel cardiac PET tracer that images the sympathetic nervous system for heart failure prognosis has been shown in preclinical studies to provide improved image quality compared with a SPECT heart failure tracer, according to a poster presentation on display Monday at the American College of Cardiology conference.
Sunday, March 14, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
The shortage of technetium-99m agents has posed significant challenges for nuclear cardiologists. Practices have had to be creative with patient appointments or utilize other imaging modalities. In this integrated imaging spotlight, cardiologists can brush up on how to use various modalities to assess myocardial viability.
The molecular imaging market is currently valued at approximately $5 billion, with half of the revenue being generated in North America alone, according to a market research report from Espicom Business Intelligence.
Written by Manjula Puthenedam
U.S. cardiologists are experiencing a 36 percent cut in SPECT imaging reimbursement as part of the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). As a result, cardiology practices nationwide are trying to survive, while hoping that cardiology advocacy groups can persuade CMS that the dramatic cuts will potentially hurt patient care and increase healthcare costs in the long term.
A majority of patients (61 percent) evaluated for chest pain of uncertain cardiac cause have a coronary artery calcium (CAC) score of zero, which predicts both a normal SPECT result and an excellent short-term outcome, according to a single-center study published online Feb. 8 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
UltraSPECT, based in Haifa, Israel, has issued three different dose-reduction protocol recommendations for using its image reconstruction products--Xpress.Cardiac and Xpress3.
Researchers from the department of clinical physiology at Lund University and Lund University Hospital in Sweden have released a free cardiovascular image analysis software package, Segment, for the research community, according to an article published Jan.11 in BMC Medical Imaging.
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.
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 FDA has rejected King Pharmaceuticals' new drug application for CorVue (binodenoson), a cardiac pharmacologic stress agent for use in SPECT exams.
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ATLANTA—A novel F18-labeled PET perfusion imaging agent has shown higher specificity for detecting right coronary artery disease compared to SPECT imaging with technetium-99m. In addition, the PET agent detected more severe and extensive stress perfusion abnormalities in the territories of diseased coronary arteries, according to an oral presentation Tuesday at the American College of Cardiology Meeting (ACC).
Sunday, March 14, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Medical imaging radiation exposure, echo contrast agents and medico-legal issues will all be covered in this integrated imaging spotlight.
Written by C.P. Kaiser
With the government recommending incentives to adopt health IT solutions—and penalties not to—many facilities and practices are scrambling to understand what they need and when. There are several key factors to heed: Don’t replace inefficient paper processes with inefficient electronic processes and don’t settle for merely modernizing the “low-hanging fruit,” such as scheduling and billing. While creating e-processes for a practice’s daily operations is important, it is imperative that CEOs and CTOs understand that EHR and electronic practice management (EPM) systems have the capability to transform the very core of healthcare business and patient management.
Sponsored by NEXTGEN Healthcare Information Systems
Written by Justine Cadet
WASHINGTON, D.C.--Obese patients are more likely to be referred for “costly” SPECT testing; and they are more likely to have positive results and longer stays, according to a poster presentation displayed at the annual conference of Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT), Feb. 21-23.
An international study on CT perfusion imaging at 15 medical centers in eight countries, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, have enrolled the first dozen patients to figure out how well various imaging tests can measure the degree of blockage or narrowing in any particular artery and their use in predicting patients who need catheterization or angioplasty, or bypass surgery.
Patients determined to have a normal-appearing initial stress SPECT do not require additional rest imaging as they have a similar low mortality rate as those who undergo stress and rest imaging, according to new findings to be published in the Jan. 19 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Research published in the December issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine suggests that SPECT, when combined with low-dose CT, can provide an accurate diagnosis for pulmonary embolism.
Written by Justine Cadet
Since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its 2010 physician fee final rule last week with cuts to cardiology practices averaging 27 percent, the American College of Cardiology has expressed adamant opposition, and its CEO, Jack Lewin, MD, said that this will cause the shuttering of practices. However, former CMS Administrator Thomas A. Scully explained how the agency is limited by finite funding and growing pressures to fund other areas of healthcare.
With the exception of evaluation and management services, nearly all services that cardiologists perform will see cuts ranging from 10 percent to more than 40 percent for individual services phased in over four years, according to the just-released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule. The cuts will be phased in over a four-year period, which is a slight change from the proposed rule.
Nuclear cardiology device developer Positron has sold its Pulse CDCC SPECT camera to CPE Institute of Cardiology in Multan, Pakistan.
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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).