Topic

Coronary Artery Disease


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.
 

New preventive cardiac disease screening guidelines SHAPE-ing up

Top Stories | Thursday, August 12 2010
The Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE), which drew some controversy in 2006 when it published guidelines calling for screening a wide population of men and women with noninvasive imaging, is taking another look at the progress in heart disease predictors in order to refine and update those guidelines.
 

Feature: Single sestamibi injection may suffice for ischemic detection

Web Exclusives | Wednesday, August 04 2010
Written by Manjula Puthenedam
“By comparing the redistribution results of technetium-99m sestamibi at five minutes and 60 minutes post stress after a single injection, we can come up with an accurate picture of how much heart disease is present, and with a reduced radiation exposure,” said Richard M. Fleming, MD, in an interview.
 

JACC: Accelerated cardiac MR perfusion imaging feasible for detecting stenosis

Clinical Studies | Sunday, August 01 2010
Accelerated cardiac MR (CMR) perfusion imaging using scan acceleration techniques such as parallel imaging is clinically feasible and offers excellent diagnostic performance in detecting coronary artery disease (CAD), according to the July issue of Journal of American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging.
 

JACC: SPECT IDs diabetics with renal dysfunction at risk of CV death

Clinical Studies | Wednesday, July 21 2010
The estimated glomerular filtration rate, which represents renal function, might play an important role in identifying high-risk diabetic persons who would benefit most from myocardial perfusion imaging by SPECT for suspected ischemia, according to a study published in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging.
 

SCCT: Computer-aided analysis for CAD detection shows promise

Conference News | Monday, July 19 2010
Computer-aided analysis (CAA) showed high sensitivity and high negative predictive value for the evaluation of significant coronary artery disease (CAD) on 64-slice cardiovascular CT angiography (CCTA) across three populations with differing CAD prevalence, suggesting that CAA could be used in clinical practice, based on a study presented this week at the fifth annual meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT).
 

JNC: It's definitive: Stress-only SPECT imaging is safe and effective

Clinical Studies | Wednesday, July 14 2010
In the era of isotope shortages and heightened awareness of radiation dose exposure, it should come as good news that if low-risk patients have a normal stress myocardial perfusion imaging study, they need not undergo the conventional complementary rest study, according to a study in the May/June issue of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.
 

JACC: Can SPECT perfusion imaging predict sudden cardiac death?

Clinical Studies | Thursday, July 08 2010
Among patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular ejection fraction greater than 35 percent, the extent of stress myocardial perfusion imaging perfusion defects is associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death, according to a study published in the July 13 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. However, an accompanying editorial questions whether the study's design is equipped to make this conclusion.
 

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.
 

Cell Point seeks IND for new SPECT agent

Regulatory News | Wednesday, June 23 2010
Cell Point has submitted to the FDA an investigational new drug (IND) application for a Phase 1b/2 trial of its 99mTc-EC-G diagnostic in assessing patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).
 

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.
 

Massachusetts molecular imaging developer expands

Industry News | Tuesday, June 15 2010
Pharmalucence is planning to construct a 70,000 square-foot pharmaceutical production facility and new corporate headquarters at 29 Dunham Road in Billerica, Mass.
 

SNM: F18-PET agent performs better than SPECT for detecting CAD

Conference News | Wednesday, June 09 2010
PET imaging with Lantheus Medical Imaging’s investigational agent flurpiridaz F18 injection (BMS747158) provided better image quality than technetium-99m sestamibi SPECT, for the detection of coronary artery disease, according to phase 2 clinical trial results presented at the SNM annual meeting in Salt Lake City.
 

ISCT Feature: Annual Workstation Face-Off was ‘impressive’

Web Exclusives | Saturday, May 22 2010
In front of a full conference room at the International Symposium on Multi-Detector Row CT last week, Carestream Health, GE Healthcare, Philips, Siemens, TeraRecon, Vital Images and Ziosoft competed in the eighth annual Workstation Face-Off in San Francisco, yielding “impressive and surprising results,” the event's moderator Geoffrey D. Rubin, MD, said in an interview.
 

AIM: CCTA is valuable in assessing who needs angiography

Clinical Studies | Tuesday, May 18 2010
Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) appears to be most valuable in patients with intermediate pretest probability of coronary artery disease, because the test can distinguish which of these patients need invasive angiography, according to an article published May 18 online in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
 

JACC: High-speed SPECT comparable to conventional SPECT for MPI

Clinical Studies | Sunday, May 16 2010
High-speed SPECT technology provides quantitative measures of myocardial perfusion and function comparable to those with conventional SPECT in one-seventh of the acquisition time, according to results from a multicenter trial published May 4 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
 

GE invests $5M for cardiovascular genomic diagnostics

Partnerships & Alliances | Sunday, May 16 2010
GE Healthcare and CardioDx, a cardiovascular genomic diagnostics company, have entered into a strategic alliance to co-develop diagnostic technologies to improve the care and management of patients with cardiovascular disease.
 

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.
 

JNC: Suspected CAD patients should undergo calcium testing w/ MPI

Clinical Studies | Friday, April 09 2010
Patients without known coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing stress PET/CT myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) should undergo a same-setting coronary artery calcium (CAC) study, as a significant number of these patients will have subclinical CAD, according to a study in the March/April issue of Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.
 

JACC: Women, men benefit from different carotid measurements for CAD

Clinical Studies | Thursday, April 08 2010
In a prediction model, researchers found that adding carotid plaque measurements, rather than carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT), to traditional risk factors better predicted coronary artery disease (CAD) in women, while men benefited from adding CIMT to traditional risk factors, according to a study published in the April 13 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
 
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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