This April the 77th Annual Meeting of the German Cardiac Society (DGK) presented over 300 events with 1,800 speakers, covering the entire spectrum of cardiovascular diseases, from fundamental research to clinical routine. Professor Gerd Hasenfuss, Director of the Department of Cardiology and Pulmonology and Chair of the Heart Research Centre in Gottingen, particularly requested a focus on …
A cardiologist at a UK hospital has become the first in the world to develop a technique to ‘slice’ 3-D images of the heart into intricate sections using computer software. The method, devised by consultant congenital cardiologist Dr Joseph Vettukattil at Southampton General Hospital, is known as multiplane review (MPR) 3-D echocardiography. This allows cardiologists to identify heart defects…
During the 2010 ESC meeting, held in Stockholm, new guidelines for myocardial revascularisation were handed down by a prestigious Task Force made up of representatives of both the ESC and the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons (EACTS).
Cardiologist, nuclear medicine specialist and researcher Dr Alessia Gimelli works for the Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio, National Research Council in Pisa, Italy. For the past year she has used Discovery NM 530c, GE’s latest Nuclear Cardiology platform, featuring an innovative CZT collimation technology called Alcyone Technology.
Developed in partnership with international cardiologists, Medison reports that its EKO7 Cardiovascular Ultrasound system is a dedicated Cardiovascular Ultrasound system ‘…with 2-D Image Quality that you would expect from a premium class ultrasound system. As a matter of fact, the same applies to the colour Doppler, Pulsed Wave Doppler and CWD. So the EKO7 has excellent image quality, a…
After years of go-slow adoption and cautious optimism, European cardiologists are now embracing remote monitoring of cardiac electrophysiology devices. ‘We are at the dawn of a new era,’ concluded Dr Philippe Ritter, Chairman of the Cardiostim 2010 congress, after reviewing findings of studies that delivered unequivocal evidence that remote monitoring is not only a safe alternative to clinic…
No white lab coats anywhere; instead men in hard hats, equipped with hammers and drills. The Düsseldorf University Hospital’s Cardiology Pneumology and Angiology Clinic is a construction site, but once the workmen have packed up their tools and removed the scaffolding the view to the human heart will be unobstructed and clearer than ever before. Here, innovative patient care and a highly…
Ongoing technical developments in computed tomography (CT) such as dual source CT have established coronary CT angiography (cCTA) as a robust non-invasive imaging test for the assessment of coronary artery disease. The most important advantage of cCTA over conventional catheter-based coronary angiography is that not only the coronary lumen but also the entire coronary artery wall is visualized…
New imaging technologies are opening a new chapter in interventional cardiology by offering something this widely practiced procedure has been missing -- vivid clinical evidence to assess effectiveness. Interventional cardiology has moved rapidly from opening blocked arteries by crushing plaque with inflatable balloons to reinforcing the walls of the re-opened arteries with flexible metal stents…
The focus on Coronary artery disease – from genes to outcomes at ESC 2010 underlines the importance of CAD diagnosis on the scientific agenda. During the session ‘Multi modality imaging to detect coronary artery disease’, chaired by Professor JJ Bax, of the Cardiology Department at Leiden University Medical Centre, the Netherlands, experts will discuss, for example, the advantages of the…
At ESC, Siemens presents a new image processing software that helps cardiologists and cardiac surgeons prepare and perform transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI): Syngo Aortic ValveGuide automatically reconstructs a 3D representation of the aortic root from CT-like cross-sectional images acquired with the angiography system.
Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions, announces today that it has signed an agreement with TomTec, active in the sector of echocardiography image analysis, reporting and data management, for the integration of its Image-Arena solution into the company's IMPAX Cardiovascular Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). TomTec offers a wide…
To make today’s cardiac CT examinations even safer, Toshiba introduces new, revolutionary “Adaptive Iterative Dose Reduction (AIDR)” technology that lowers the radiation dose to the patient by up to 75% compared to conventional scanners.
The identification of cardiometabolic risk is one of the most frequently performed standard examinations, which many European health insurers even require for patients of a certain age. Up to now, physicians had to calculate the value manually on the basis of certain parameters – a time-consuming task. Seca, which specialises in medical scales, now offers 360° wireless, which not only measures…
In Switzerland, they say, the clocks tick a little slower than elsewhere in the world. Not at Schiller AG in Baar, however: The company remains forever ahead of the times. Since 1971, physicist Alfred E Schiller, the company’s founder and managing director, has successfully shown competitors in the tough intensive and emergency care market what innovative progress really means.
Not only is heart failure one of the single biggest causes of morbidity and mortality in man, but the incidence of the condition is steadily increasing. Rising to this challenge, innovative medical diagnostic techniques with ever greater performance are constantly being introduced so that early, unambiguous detection of the underlying condition is now possible, enabling the prompt initiation of…
Early problems of ultra-high field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have been overcome by successful development of adequate hardware. In consequence big efforts have been achieved in structural imaging, as well in functional imaging. Basic scientists and physicians who work in ultra-high-field MRI in Europe and the USA, met at the Berlin Ultra-high-field Facility (BUFF), in the Max Dehlbrück…
The teaching hospital in Olomouc aims to become a national centre for telemedicine. A telemedicine system is currently used by the hospital’s Internal Medicine Department 1 for cardiac patients and almost a hundred patients are remotely monitored via a telesystem implemented by the hospital.
Although cardiac computed tomography (cCT) has shown very good diagnostic accuracy for the detection of coronary artery disease, the physiologic significance of many lesions can be uncertain. Furthermore, the presence of calcified atherosclerotic plaque reduces the ability to differentiate significant stenosis from non obstructive plaque.
Recent reports on cancer risk from radiation at CT have sparked new concern and discussion in the medical community as well as in the general public. It has been suggested that CT may be responsible for up to 2% of all cancers.
Physicians connected with the Friesland Regional Cardiology Network can now consult in real- time with specialists at the regional medical centre to determine the best course of treatment for their patients. The cardiology network not only speeds up the referral process and improves both diagnosis and the clinical decision process, but also is credited with reducing the length of stay for…
During conventional electro-cardiology, interference from electromagnetic fields (EMFs) tends to diminish image quality due to cardiac motion. To exclude that interference an acoustic cardiac triggering (ACT) approach, also called MR stethoscope, has been developed to trigger cardiac MRI at 7-Tesla.
‘There are few reasons to deny a patient an MRI scan, and nearly all of them are having a pacemaker,’ said Pierre Bordachar MD at the Centre Hopitalière Universitaire (CHU), Bordeaux, France. Yet one-in-five pacemaker patients will require an MRI scan within the first year of receiving a pacemaker, while more than half of all pacemaker patients will need such a scan at some later point in…
At Mannheim University Medical Centre five MR units are currently installed - the Magnetom Tim Trio, 2 x Magnetom Avanto, Magnetom Sonata and the new Magnetom Skyra, which was presented at the RSNA 2009 and is equipped with completely new software.
Cardiologists are looking beyond on-screen images of the heart to extract data behind these scans that describe coronary dysfunctions and can reveal hard evidence of the cause of disease reports John Brosky.