Dear Cardiac Insider,
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has long been the gold standard for detecting potentially high-risk noncalcified plaque in the coronary arteries. But IVUS is expensive and invasive. Is there another way?
There might be. In a study presented at the recent RSNA meeting in Chicago, researchers from Rotterdam compared IVUS to 64-detector-row CT for the detection and quantification of both calcified and noncalcified coronary artery plaque in symptomatic patients. CT was equivalent or nearly as good as IVUS in every measure, according to a study you'll find here.
Speaking of coronary artery disease, SPECT imaging has been replacing treadmill tests for initial evaluation in some cases, and that's not a bad thing. But MRI does a much better job, achieving higher sensitivity compared with gold-standard angiography and without the radiation dose, U.K. researchers said in a study of nearly 700 patients.
Going a step further, radiologists in Munich are using 3-tesla MRI to improve their diagnoses, particularly when it comes to precisely measuring first-pass myocardial perfusion. Learn more here.
The new year also brings timely guidance in echocardiography, with guidelines issued last week by a joint committee of the European Association for Echocardiography and the American Society of Echocardiography. The article represents a practical guide for acquiring, analyzing, and displaying cardiac structures using 3D echo, the authors note in a story you'll find by clicking here.
Finally, the utility of echocardiography hinges on rigorous quality control (QC), notes an article from the recent Euroecho conference in Budapest. QC encompasses everything from equipment management to finding the best ways to measure, record, and reread exam data, according to an article by AuntMinnieEurope.com contributing writer Robin Marshall that you'll find here.
Be sure to scroll through the links below for the rest of the news in your Cardiac Imaging Digital Community. And happy new year from AuntMinnieEurope.com!
