Medical Imaging

Physicians utilize medical imaging to see inside the body to diagnose and treat patients. This includes computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, angiography,  and the nuclear imaging modalities of PET and SPECT. 

American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) 2024 President Lawrence Phillips, MD, FASNC, director of nuclear cardiology and medical director for outpatient cardiology at NYU Langone Health, explains ASNC’s advocacy efforts for Medicare payments and reform.

ASNC president advocates for Medicare reimbursement reform

Lawrence Phillips, MD, president of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, said that U.S. physicians are growing more and more frustrated by Medicare policies.

Video interview with ASNC President Lawrence Phillips, MD, NYU, who is encouraging the modernization of nuclear cardiology labs and expansion into new diagnostic areas.

ASNC president pushes to modernize nuclear cardiology, expand the specialty's reach

ASNC President Lawrence Phillips, MD, wants to see nuclear cardiologists modernize their labs and embrace new strategies for the evaluation of amyloidosis, sarcoidosis and inflammation.

Royal Philips X11-4t Mini 3D TEE transducer

FDA clears smaller 3D TEE transducer for imaging children, high-risk adult patients

The newly approved device is much smaller than previous offerings, helping operators capture 3D images during structural heart evaluations. 

Jamie Bourque, MD, medical director of the nuclear cardiology and stress laboratory, and medical director of the echocardiography lab, at the University of Virginia, discusses a new multimodality consensus statement for imaging cardiac amyloidosis. This area has rapidly expanded over the past couple years now that there are drugs to treat the condition.

New ASNC quality metrics will support standardization of imaging for cardiac amyloidosis

Interest in cardiac amyloidosis has been on the rise in recent years. Jamie Bourque, MD, talked to Cardiovascular Business about an upcoming consensus statement focused on using cardiac imaging to evaluate patients for signs of this serious condition. 

Rob deKemp, PhD, FASNC, University of Ottawa, Canada, explains new nuclear cardiac imaging dose lowering techniques for PET and SPECT.

How to achieve much lower radiation doses in cardiac nuclear imaging

The radiation doses associated with CT have decreased significantly, leaving nuclear cardiology as the modality with the highest doses in all of cardiac imaging. Rob deKemp, PhD, talked to us about some of the many ways imagers can work to address this issue.

Professor Keith Channon, MD, MB ChB, FRCP, interventional cardiologist and the British Heart Foundation Professor Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford, and a co-founder of Caristo, explained an AHA 2023 study where AI identified coronary inflammation as a major silent risk factor and a strong predictor of heart attack risk.

AI model targets inflammation, helping cardiologists find 'invisible' heart patients

By focusing more on inflammation, cardiologists can ensure they are identifying patients who need help before it's too late.

Example of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) shown as part of the multimodality imaging capability on the Fujifilm CVIS.

Cardiologists, radiologists and surgeons push for increased adoption of IVUS during peripheral vascular interventions

Increasing the use of intravascular ultrasound when performing lower-extremity revascularization procedures could limit complications and improve patient outcomes, according to new recommendations from several medical societies.

Video of Renee Bullock-Palmer, MD, FSCCT, director, Women’s Heart Center, and director, non-invasive cardiac imaging, at the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, New Jersey, explaining the latest guidelines that support use of CT angiography at SCCT 2023. #YesCCT #CCTA #CTA #SCCT #SCCT23 #SCCT2023

What new data, expert guidelines tell us about the future of cardiac CT

Renee Bullock-Palmer, MD, details the latest guidelines that support the continued use of CT angiography.

Around the web

Several key trends were evident at the Radiological Society of North America 2024 meeting, including new CT and MR technology and evolving adoption of artificial intelligence.

Ron Blankstein, MD, professor of radiology, Harvard Medical School, explains the use of artificial intelligence to detect heart disease in non-cardiac CT exams.