Physicians perform 1st chest pain evaluation with ECG-gated imaging on TAMS 64-slice CT
Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Mass., this week performed the first chest pain evaluation using electrocardiogram-gated (ECG-gated) imaging using Toshiba America Medical Systems' Aquilion 64-slice CT scanner.
A BIDMC patient reporting chest pains and considerable shortness of breath during exertion was scanned to see if the problems stemmed from issues involving the lungs or heart.
The chest was scanned using 100 ml of non-ionic contrast medium in 14.9 seconds with a single breath-hold, said Melvin Clouse, MD, professor of radiology and Director of Research at BIDMC.
"At that imaging speed, patient motion artifacts are non-existent, and also by using ECG-gated imaging methods, the image quality was significantly enhanced to reveal diseases such as pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection or detect a cardiac event in just one scan," Clouse said.
A BIDMC patient reporting chest pains and considerable shortness of breath during exertion was scanned to see if the problems stemmed from issues involving the lungs or heart.
The chest was scanned using 100 ml of non-ionic contrast medium in 14.9 seconds with a single breath-hold, said Melvin Clouse, MD, professor of radiology and Director of Research at BIDMC.
"At that imaging speed, patient motion artifacts are non-existent, and also by using ECG-gated imaging methods, the image quality was significantly enhanced to reveal diseases such as pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection or detect a cardiac event in just one scan," Clouse said.