The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) has developed a mobile device application, iASE, which provides summaries of the societys most popular guidelines.

The FDA is alerting healthcare professionals to stop using CardioGen-82 for cardiac PET. CardioGen-82 consists of a generator that is used at clinical sites to produce rubidium (Rb)-82 chloride injection, and the manufacturer, Bracco Diagnostics, has decided to voluntarily recall the product.

For patients with unfavorable coronary sinus (CS) vein anatomy, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) via a surgical minithoracotomic approach is preferable to transvenous lead implantation, according to a study published in the July 26 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. However, an accompanying editorial recommended caution when deciding whether to recommend routine CT scans to define anatomy in possible CRT candidates due to iatrogenic radiation exposure.

Medicare cuts for imaging are restricting access to care for Americas most vulnerable while stifling innovation and jobs growtha planned eighth round of cuts in five years must be stopped, wrote a group of U.S. senators in a letter to President Barack Obama.

The clinical profile of stress cardiomyopathy (SC) may be broader than expected, including men, younger patients and patients without an identifiable stressful trigger. Cardiovascular MR (CMR) imaging could help rule out SC at presentation by providing helpful diagnostic information that can verify relevant functional and tissue changes, according to a study published in the July 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Despite similar overall burdens of atherosclerotic plaque and stenosis, African Americans may have less stable lesions than whites due to significantly higher volumes of noncalcified plaque, according to a study published June 21 in Radiology, leading experts to suggest that coronary CT angiography may be a more appropriate screening study than calcium scoring among African Americans.

GE Healthcare and Rapidscan Pharma Solutions have introduced regadenoson, marketed as Rapiscan, to facilitate myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) to diagnose coronary artery disease for patients unable to exercise.

A survey of 421 CT sites in the U.S. indicated that 81.9 million CT procedures were performed in 8,180 hospitals and non-hospital sites in 2010, representing an average annual growth rate of about 6 percent since 2007, when about 68.7 million procedures were performed, according to an IMV report.