The American College of Radiology (ACR) will offer its first cardiac CT certificate of advanced proficiency exam on Sept. 9, open to all physicians who meet eligibility requirements and professional experience qualifications.

Kidney injury that can arise after undergoing x-ray coronary angiography studies increases a patient's risk of having astroke or heart attack over the next year or two, according to a study in the June 25 issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology. The findings indicate that seemingly minor and reversible kidney damage from these common clinical procedures is a serious health threat.

Acacia Patent Acquisition, a subsidiary of Acacia Research, has settled an infringement suit against Siemens Medical Solutions over patents covering medical image manipulation technology for coronary procedures.

Steris, a surgical support and integration technologies company, and Siemens Healthcare have agreed to collaborate in the offering of hybrid surgical suites for vascular, cardiovascular and neurosurgical applications.

For long-z-axis whole-chest 64-multidetector CT of emergency department patients with nonspecific chest pain, the use of prospective ECG triggering may result in substantially lower patient radiation doses and better coronary artery image quality than is achieved with retrospective ECG gating, according to a study in the June issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) developer LightLab Imaging has launched its C7XR FD-OCT imaging system with the C7 Dragonfly Imaging Catheter at EuroPCR 2009 in Barcelona, Spain.

GE Healthcare introduced three new CardioLab electrophysiology (EP) recording systems at the 2009 Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) conference, held last week in Boston.

Researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston have developed a technique that allows fully automated 3D coronary lumen geometry extraction based on 320-detector row coronary CT angiography images. Frank J. Rybicki, MD, PhD, co-director of the cardiovascular imaging section at the facility, showcased the technique in a scientific presentation at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society, which took place last week in Boston.