The purpose of this study was to analyze the ability of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to identify coronary arterial plaque diagnosed by histologic examination. We examined 166 sections from 108 coronary arterial segments of 40 consecutive human cadavers (24 men and 16 women; mean age 74 +/- 7 years). The ...

BACKGROUND: Multi-row computed tomography (MDCT) is a promising non-invasive technique and capable of rapid imaging of cardiac structures, including coronary arteries and bypass grafts during a single held breath. In this study, we evaluated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patency by comparing 4-slice computed tomography with conventional contrast angiography. One ...

The understanding of concepts in coronary artery disease, such as the vulnerable or high-risk plaque, which accounts for many acute coronary events arising from non-flow-limiting coronary lesions, has advanced remarkably. Although coronary angiography is an established imaging technique for visualizing atherosclerotic disease, it is limited by its two-dimensional imaging aspect ...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to compare diagnostic accuracy of MDCT coronary angiography in a population of patients with mild heart rhythm irregularities before and after editing the ECG. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirty-eight patients who underwent MDCT coronary angiography and conventional coronary angiography were enrolled in the study. ...

OBJECTIVE: To study cardiovascular calcifications, detected by computed tomography, in patients following mediastinal radiation for Hodgkin lymphoma, and correlate them with clinical findings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen patients, <or=55 years, with computed tomography detected cardiovascular calcifications after mediastinal radiotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma were identified during a 10-year period. Calcifications were ...

BACKGROUND: Aortic valve calcification (AVC) and/or mitral annulus calcification (MAC) is considered to be a marker of atherosclerosis and has been demonstrated to predict cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. AIM: We hypothesized that the presence of cardiac calcification by echocardiography can be used in the differential diagnosis between ischaemic (DCMI+) and ...

RATIONALE: Findings from laboratory studies strongly suggest a role for apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death, in cardiovascular disease. No population-based study has yet investigated whether serum levels of soluble forms of Fas, a receptor capable of inducing the apoptosis cascade, are associated with coronary and extracoronary atherosclerosis. METHODS: ...

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Slow heart rate and small changes in heart rate are factors for improving image quality on spiral cardiac computed tomography (CT). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to improve non-enhanced cardiac CT quality by delaying the data-acquisition window after breath hold. ...

Invasive coronary angiography (ICA) has been the gold standard in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) for a long time and angiographic procedures performed annually in the United States have steadily increased during the last 25 years. The unmatched temporal and spatial imaging resolution, the high level contrast between ...

The evolution of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) is not always clearly understood, and our understanding has been limited by the absence of serial information regarding the coronary vasculature in these patients. We describe a young patient with an acute inferior wall myocardial infarction in whom repeat multi-detector computed tomographic scanning ...

We explored quantitative parameters of image quality in consecutive patients undergoing 64-slice multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) coronary angiography for clinical reasons. Forty-two patients (36 men, mean age 61 +/- 11 years, mean heart rate 63 +/- 10 bpm) underwent contrast-enhanced MDCT coronary angiography with a 64-slice scanner (Siemens Sensation 64, ...

BACKGROUND: The ability to distinguish dysfunctional but viable myocardium from nonviable tissue has important prognostic implications after myocardial infarction. The purpose of this study was to validate the accuracy of contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for quantifying myocardial necrosis, microvascular obstruction, and chronic scar after occlusion/reperfusion myocardial infarction. METHODS AND ...

An update of new developments with multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) coronary angiography is presented. Similar to what has occurred with the introduction of other new technologies such as electron beam computed tomography (EBCT), life insurance medical directors are expected to evaluate a technology before there are sufficient data from large ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to prospectively evaluate the usefulness of CT coronary angiography versus invasive coronary angiography for the detection of clinically significant coronary artery disease in patients hospitalized for acute chest pain syndrome. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty-six consecutive patients (52 men and 14 women; average age, ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: While current guidelines recommend a selective invasive approach after low-risk ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated by thrombolysis, based on noninvasive identification of patients with residual or inducible myocardial ischemia, in many instances physicians employ a strategy of routine angiography. The present study was undertaken to reexamine the ...

Coronary computed tomography angiography with 64-slice multidetector CT scanners allows reproducible and accurate non-invasive evaluation of coronary atherosclerotic disease in most patients. These coronary CT angiography studies are very promising and exciting. However, the start-up phase of such a coronary CTA program can be challenging. We discuss the problems that ...

Numerous studies have evaluated the association between antioxidants and coronary atherosclerosis but have been limited by its study among individuals with advanced atherosclerosis. The authors studied 865 consecutive patients, 39-45 years of age, without known coronary artery disease and presenting for a periodic physical examination. Antioxidant intake was assessed with ...

PURPOSE: We sought to determine, prospectively, if any race or sex disparities in coronary angiography use was explained by standardized criteria for the procedure. METHODS: We prospectively identified 153 patients > or =40 years of age who underwent evaluation for coronary disease from December 1998 to November 1999 at a ...

Evaluation of: Mahnken A, Koos R, Katoh M et al.: Assessment of myocardial viability in reperfused acute myocardial infarction using 16-slice computed tomography in comparison with magnetic resonance imaging. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 12, 2042-2047 (2005). Myocardial contrast-enhanced (CE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is a relatively new and well-validated ...

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the ability of magnetic resonance imaging to perform a noninvasive assessment of coronary arteries, function and viability in one examination in a population with Kawasaki disease. BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) can identify coronary abnormalities in patients with Kawasaki disease (KD). Contrast enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CeCMR) ...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies that compared multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) non-invasive coronary angiography with conventional coronary angiography, did not assessed the ability of MDCT to detect stenotic lesions correctly in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) patients. The aim of the present study was to assess prospectively the correlation and bias between 16-slice ...

BACKGROUND: The coronary artery disease, now, the incidence is increasing in both developed and developing countries. The investigation is evoluted and non-invasive multislice CT scanners have been used more frequently, although the gold standard is still the coronary angiography. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the accuracy in detected coronary artery disease by ...

The role of 16-slice spiral CT was evaluated in the diagnosis of coronary stenosis, with selective X-ray coronary angiography (SCA) serving as the reference standard. Sixty-five patients who were suspected of having coronary heart disease, without percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary bypass-grafting, were investigated using 16-slice CT. Eight patients ...

Anomalous origin of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) from the right sinus of the Valsalva or the proximal right coronary artery (RCA) is one of the most clinically important anomalies of coronary circulation. We report the case of a patient with chest pain and abnormal thallium myocardial perfusion scan ...

BACKGROUND: Coronary angiography is still the gold standard for the diagnosis of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) for which alternative non-invasive diagnostic approaches are currently investigated. In this study, we assessed whether 31P magnetic resonance chemical shift imaging can diagnose CAV by studying variations in cardiac high-energy phosphates in a population ...

Eighty-four patients with suspected coronary artery disease were studied to determine the accuracy of noninvasive coronary angiography using a multidetector computed tomographic scanner with 64- x 0.6-mm collimation and 330-ms gantry rotation. All coronary artery segments with a diameter >1.5 mm were assessed with respect to stenoses >50% decreased diameter. ...

Anomalous coronary arteries are usually identified incidentally by angiography or autopsy, but some "malignant" coronary anomalies are associated with a high incidence of syncope, arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, and sudden death. So far, the pathogenesis of the coronary events in such cases has only been revealed by autopsy. In the present ...

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether we could predict myocardial ischemia when coronary artery calcification is detected by non-gated multidetector CT in patients with suspected ischemic heart disease. METHODS: Eighty-three patients suspected of having ischemic heart disease (55 men, 28 women; age range 36-83 years; mean age 68 years) underwent multidetector CT ...

BACKGROUND: Renal artery stenosis (RAS) is a potentially reversible cause of hypertension and renal insufficiency and is associated with poor prognosis. METHODS: We aimed to identify simple predictors of significant RAS among patients undergoing coronary angiography. Prospective data were collected on 843 consecutive patients who underwent cardiac catheterization and abdominal ...

The accuracy of multi-detector computed tomographic (MDCI) coronary angiography (CTA) is dependant on image quality as well as the experience of the operator. Established centers have reported negative predictive values of over 95%. The aim of our study was to investigate the accuracy and feasibility of CTA for the assessment ...

We present a case of a 55-year-old men who suffered a silent myocardial infarction four years earlier and presented with exertional dyspnoea. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) was performed and revealed a giant pseudoaneursym of the lateral wall of the left ventricle with the presence ...

Following left ventricular bolus injection of contrast material, multislice CT scanning was performed. With retrospective ECG-gated reconstruction, we could acquire volume data for the heart at any cardiac phase and selectively depict only the left ventricle and aorta with maximum intensity projection. Temporal resolution of multislice CT was not sufficient ...

BACKGROUND: The influence of heart rate on detectability and reproducibility of multislice computed tomography (MSCT) for measuring coronary calcium score was evaluated using pulsating calcified mock-vessels and compared with electron beam tomography (EBT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four calcified mock-vessels with 200-350 HU were made to pulsate at a rate of ...

Until recently anomalous coronary artery anatomy was only identified either by coronary angiography, at autopsy, or during cardiac surgery. With recent developments in the area of cardiac imaging, ECG-gated cardiac computed tomography (CT) has emerged as a minimally invasive modality to delineate both coronary anatomy and pathology. We present a ...

Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) cardiac findings in an unconscious teenager after blunt chest trauma are presented. Multidetector computed tomography enabled accurate comprehensive evaluation of the coronary arteries, myocardial perfusion, and left ventricular function. This case illustrates the full capabilities of MDCT in the evaluation of cardiac contusion in a noncooperative ...

The introduction of multislice computed tomography (MSCT) has allowed non-invasive coronary angiography. Although widely applied, extensive information on technical details of the technique is lacking. This survey offers detailed information on patient preparation, data acquisition, reconstruction and interpretation. In addition, a summary of the available studies using MSCT for non-invasive ...

Retrospectively ECG-gated MDCT shows a high correlation and acceptable agreement of left-ventricular functional parameters compared to MR imaging. Thus, in addition to the non-invasive evaluation of coronary arteries, further important additional information of left-ventricular functional parameters with clinical and prognostic relevance can be achieved by one single MDCT examination. For ...

BACKGROUND: Lengthy waiting lists for coronary angiography have been described in many health care systems worldwide. The extent to which formal queue management systems may improve the prioritization and survival of patients in the angiography queue is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To prospectively evaluate the performance of a formal queue management system ...

The use of a single catheter for coronary angiography has a number of potential advantages such as the reduction of arterial trauma, costs and procedural time. Accordingly, we assessed the feasibility and safety of two different strategies for transradial multipurpose coronary angiography. METHODS: From February 2002 to December 2004, a ...

BACKGROUND: To determine if detection of coronary artery calcifications in patients with Kawasaki disease may serve as a noninvasive predictor of future coronary artery events. METHODS: A prospective, cohort pilot study that included 18 patients with Kawasaki disease > 1 year from the acute disease was performed including 9 patients ...

OBJECTIVE: To show an overall diagnostic accuracy > or = 90% for detection of > or = 50% stenoses by coronary half millimetre 32 detector row computed tomography angiography (32 x 0.5-MDCTA) in patients with advanced coronary artery disease (CAD) and a high likelihood of raised calcium scores. METHODS: ECG ...

The use of coronary angiography has undergone extraordinary expansion during the last decade but an inappropriate rate of its utilization has been reported in 0-58% of cases worldwide. In this study we showed that in a Health Care Organization in Brazil, 65.5% of elective coronary angiographies was allocated in class ...

BACKGROUND: The diagnostic performance of the latest 64-slice CT scanner, with increased temporal (165 ms) and spatial (0.4 mm3) resolution, to detect significant stenoses in the clinically relevant coronary tree is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 52 patients (34 men; mean age, 59.6+/-12.1 years) with atypical chest pain, stable ...

This report describes a simple angiographic viewing rule for coronary angiography in patients of dextrocardia with obstructive coronary artery disease, which could correct the unfamiliar angulated pictures of the coronary tree in dextrocardia into the familiar conventional angiographic pictures of a normally located heart and its associated ease of interpretation.

Multislice computed tomography is a rapidly emerging technique for the non-invasive visualization of coronary arteries. Over the past 5 years several scanner generation were introduced with a progressive improvement in the diagnostic accuracy in the detection of coronary artery stenosis in selected patients populations. The introduction of 64-slice technology has ...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence and severity of coronary-artery atherosclerosis in patients with early and established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and controls. METHODS: Electron-beam computed tomography was used to measure the extent of coronary-artery calcification in 227 subjects, of whom 70 had early RA, 71 had established RA, and 86 were ...

Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) of the heart is a rapidly developing technique mainly used to evaluate the coronary arteries. However, it is also capable of evaluating ventricular function. It compares well with magnetic resonance imaging in calculating volumes and ejection fractions, but little has been reported on its ability to ...

BACKGROUND: Hemodialysis patients are at increased risk for progressive coronary artery calcification; however, the development and progression of this disease process in patients new to hemodialysis is unknown. METHOD: One hundred and twenty-nine patients new to hemodialysis were randomized to receive calcium containing phosphate binders or the noncalcium phosphate binder ...

BACKGROUND: Multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) is a versatile modality to evaluate stenoses in native coronary arteries and bypass grafts. Acquired MDCT data can additionally be used to assess left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The purpose was to use MDCT for the assessment of bypass graft and coronary artery disease combined ...

Intravascular ultrasounds (IVUS) allowed an innovative visualization of coronary artery disease. This technique developed first in the research field and, then, it was introduced in clinical practice as a supplement to coronary angiography in diagnosis of the severity of ischemic heart disease. The characteristic tomographic view of coronary plaque supplied ...