Cardiac Imaging

While cardiac ultrasound is the widely used imaging modality for heart assessments, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear imaging are also used and are often complimentary, each offering specific details about the heart other modalities cannot. For this reason the clinical question being asked often determines the imaging test that will be used.

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SNMMI 2020: Imaging highlights connection between heart and kidneys in heart attack response

Researchers monitored how the heart and kidneys responded one day, three days, seven days and six weeks following an induced myocardial infarction. 

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Cloud-based imaging spinoff inHeart raises $4.2M for AI-based heart arrhythmia solution

It’s cloud software turns preoperative medical images into a 3D “digital twin” of the patient’s heart enabling providers to plan procedures and navigate instruments during surgery.

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AI excludes scans without CAC scoring, paving the way for efficient CVD screening

In a screening population at elevated risk, experts say their algorithm could reduce the number of scans required for manual interpretation by 34%.

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Tele-echocardiography program proven effective, may bring vital imaging to more heart failure patients

“The most important finding of this study is that by using expert support by telemedicine, more patients with heart failure can gain the benefit of diagnostic ultrasound,” doctors wrote in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine.

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Imaging-confirmed stroke rates low among COVID-19 patients, but cases are often more deadly

Among the more than 3,500 patients diagnosed with the disease, 0.9% had an ischemic stroke. But these patients were much more likely to have died at hospital discharge.

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‘Low threshold for diagnostic imaging’ recommended to detect blood clotting in COVID inpatients

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients are at heightened risk for life-threatening venous thromboembolism, so clinicians should not hesitate to order imaging for the two conditions that jointly lead to it. 

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Photoacoustic imaging could unseat fluoroscopy for guiding cardiac, other interventions

Johns Hopkins researchers have demonstrated the use of photoacoustic imaging to guide catheter-based cardiac interventions such as radiofrequency ablations used to correct arrhythmias.

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Ultrasound-based imaging tool to pinpoint arrhythmia ‘win-win’ for patients, physicians

"This study presents a significant advancement in addressing a major unmet clinical need: the accurate arrhythmia localization in patients with a variety of heart rhythm disorders," one Johns Hopkins Medicine expert noted.

Around the web

Positron, a New York-based nuclear imaging company, will now provide Upbeat Cardiology Solutions with advanced PET/CT systems and services. 

The nuclear imaging isotope shortage of molybdenum-99 may be over now that the sidelined reactor is restarting. ASNC's president says PET and new SPECT technologies helped cardiac imaging labs better weather the storm.

CMS has more than doubled the CCTA payment rate from $175 to $357.13. The move, expected to have a significant impact on the utilization of cardiac CT, received immediate praise from imaging specialists.