Cardiac imaging for myocardial infarct size in an emergency department(ED) is constrained by the difficulty of conducting MR or nuclearmedicine exams on unstable patients. However, using more widelyavailable multidetector CT technology shows promise as analternative imaging technique that may provide similar information.

Cardiac imaging for myocardial infarct size in an emergency department (ED) is constrained by the difficulty of conducting MR or nuclear medicine exams on unstable patients. However, using more widely available multidetector CT (MDCT) technology shows promise as an alternative imaging technique that may provide similar information.

Heart imaging specialists are aware that an atheroma burden includingsignificant stenoses may be present in patients with no coronarycalcification. However, CT performed solely for calcium scoring is notable to show non-calcified atheroma or stenosis. A study published thismonth in the American Journal of Roentgenology found thatalthough the calcium score does add prognostic value to standard riskfactors and serum markers, imaging the vessel wall directly may behelpful to identify non-calcified plaque and guide therapy.

Siemens Healthcare and the Steadman•Hawkins Research Foundation in Vail, Colo., have formed a strategic alliance that will add 3T MRItechnology to the foundation and allow its clinicians and researchersaccess to advanced sports medical imaging.

Supported by a growing base of clinical studies, cardiac CT angiography(CCTA) has shown its utility in improving cardiac patient managementand ruling out heart disease with greater than 99 percent accuracy,while also offering fiscal benefits that can be found by limitingunnecessary diagnostic cardiac catheterization procedures on low- tointermediate-risk patients presenting with acute chest pain.

Cardinal Health will open three additional PET radiopharmaceuticalmanufacturing facilities near its existing nuclear pharmacy locationsthis year, which the company announced at the Society of NuclearMedicine’s (SNM) meeting held in New Orleans, June 14–18.

Siemens Healthcare is unveiling the Acuson SC2000 volume imagingultrasound system, which can acquire non-stitched, real-timefull-volume 3D images of the heart in one single heart cycle, duringthe 19th Annual Session of the American Society of Echocardiography(ASE) in Toronto, June 7-11.

A meta-analysis of diagnostic performance of 16- and 64-slice CT forcoronary artery bypass graft assessment (CABG) showed evidence that themodality provided high accuracy for the evaluation of CABG obstructionin assessable conduits, according to research conducted by teams fromFrance and Italy and published this month in the journal Radiology.