Topic

Acute Coronary Syndrome


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.
 

JACC: FFR trumps IVUS for assessing intermediate lesions for PCI

Clinical Studies | Monday, August 23 2010
The use of fractional-flow reserve (FFR) resulted in significantly lower PCIs compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in patients with intermediate coronary artery disease (CAD), based on study results in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.
 

JACC: New SPECT agent could detect patients with acute coronary syndrome

Clinical Studies | Monday, July 19 2010
The addition of Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals’ Zemiva imaging data to initially available clinical information contributes to the early diagnosis and evaluation of myocardial ischemia and acute coronary syndrome, according to a Phase 2 clinical trial published in the July 20 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
 

Study: Cardiac MR in the ER trims hospital admissions, costs

Clinical Studies | Friday, June 25 2010
Imaging with stress cardiac MRI in an observation unit can reduce incident cost without missing acute coronary syndrome in patients with emergent chest pain when compared to inpatient care, according to a study published online May 31 in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
 

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.
 

ACC.10: Clinical Path to Quality Improvement

Features | Tuesday, March 02 2010
Written by Justine Cadet
With the plethora of clinical data emerging at this month’s American College of Cardiology annual meeting, the sessions are seeking to provide clinicians and administrators with methods to improve the quality of evidence-based care.
 

NewCardio 3D ECG platform nets possible patent

Regulatory News | Friday, February 26 2010
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTA) has granted a notice of allowance to cardiac diagnostic technology provider NewCardio for its urgent care solution Cardio3KG.
 

AEM: Patients with CAC score of zero should be sent home

Clinical Studies | Thursday, February 11 2010
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.
 

TCT: Can new coronary imaging techniques help predict future events?

Conference News | Thursday, September 24 2009
SAN FRANCISCO—In PROSPECT, the first prospective, natural history trial of atherosclerosis using multimodality imaging to characterize the coronary tree, researchers found that about 20 percent of patients with acute coronary syndromes successfully treated with stents and medical therapy develop at least one major coronary event within three years, with adverse events equally attributable to recurrence at originally treated culprit lesions and to previously untreated non-culprit coronary segments.
 

BMC: Post-TIA ultrasounds identify risk for future cardiac event

Clinical Studies | Thursday, July 30 2009
Ultrasound can be used to determine a patient's cardaic event risk after a transient ischemic attack (TIA). An evaluation of transcranial and extracranial Doppler ultrasonography, published July 30 in BMC Medical Imaging, demonstrated that both future stroke and future cardiovascular ischemic events can be predicted by abnormal findings.
 

JACC: CTA might better predict plaque instability for higher risk patients

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, July 07 2009
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.
 

Societies revise cardiac radionuclide imaging appropriateness criteria

Industry News | Monday, May 18 2009
The Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) task force has released the AUC for Cardiac Radionuclide Imaging, which refines appropriate use of pharmacologic tests compared with exercise stress tests and updates recommendations regarding radionuclide imaging in the perioperative setting.
 

JACC: CCTA may help chest pain triage

Clinical Studies | Thursday, April 30 2009
Fifty percent of patients with acute chest pain and low-to-intermediate likelihood of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) were free of coronary artery disease by CT and had no ACS, according to ROMICAT trial results published in the May 5 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
 

SPECT imaging agent with ‘ischemic memory’ shows positive Phase 2 data

Industry News | Tuesday, April 21 2009
Zemiva, a molecular imaging radiopharmaceutical, in combination with initial clinical information in patients suspected of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), resulted in significantly improved sensitivity compared to the sensitivity of the initial clinical diagnosis alone, while maintaining specificity, according to a Phase 2 trial sponsored by manufacturer Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals.
 
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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