The Philips flagship product at RSNA, the 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner, allows radiologists to produce high-quality images with exceptional acquisition speed, including complete coverage of the heart and brain. It is so powerful it can capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats, while incorporating Philips technology that has reduced radiation doses by up to 80 percent.
Just in time for Medica, VISUS has expanded its products portfolio with a PACS solution for cardiology.
Toshiba's new Artida Ultrasound system is the world's first ultrasound system that can track and display myocardial wall motion three-dimensionally.
Every fourth patient suffering from an irreversible heart defect and due for a heart transplant dies while waiting for a donor organ despite the use of extracorporeal blood pumps. A new ventricular assist device (VAD), currently under development at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), promises a new approach to help these patients. The fully implantable heart support device might be an effective…
The US firm Boston Scientific reports that it has received the Conformité Européenne (CE) Mark for its Confient implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), the company's first branded cardiac rhythm management device to treat sudden cardiac death. Containing wireless capability, the Confient ICD has been designed to reduce right ventricular pacing.
Visage PACS/CS, a scalable PACS solution based on web and thin client technology with fully integrated clinical applications, is to be demonstrated at this year's RSNA in Chicago, along with a comprehensive portfolio of life sciences products and services from Visage Imaging, a subsidiary of Mercury Computer Systems Inc.
According to a study from the technology consultancy Frost & Sullivan the market for CT systems in Europe will grow annually by 4% - in 2013 sales will be worth $1.14 billion. Customers' primary request are cardiac imaging applications, but software innovations and improvements in scan time and image acquisition are also distinguishing features of next-generation systems.
Switzerland - A clinical trial of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) in patients with advanced heart failure and a narrow QRS complex
During a meeting of cardiologists in Prague earlier this year to exchange experiences with new methods and treatments to control atrial fibrillation, Dr Josef Kautzner, Head of Cardiology Department at IKEM (Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine) pointed out that numbers of patients with AF will more than double during the next 20 years.
The first implant of the Reveal XT, an insertable cardiac monitor made by US firm Medtronic, which recently received CE (Conformité Européenne) Mark, was carried out in June by Professor Karl-Heinz Kuck MD, at the Asklepios Klinik St. Georg in Hamburg, Germany.
More women than men die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) every year, yet females receive only 33% of angioplasties, stents and bypass surgeries; 28% of implantable defibrillators, and 36% of open heart surgeries.
Ongoing refinement of modern helical multi-slice CT (MSCT) scanners offers the opportunity for very high temporal and spatial resolution thin-slice data set acquisition. The reconstruction techniques offered (multisegment reconstruction) result in improved temporal resolution down to 40-200 ms and thus also reducing motion artifacts. The SURECardio software package makes possible optimum studies…
Coronary stenting is the most common way of treating symptomatic ischaemic cardiopathy and stenosis of venous bypasses. Restenosis actually occurs in 30% of patients treated with non-medicated stents while "drug eluting" stents have reduced the incidence of restenosis by approximately a quarter and have proved particularly effective in diabetic patients and in the treatment of lesions…
Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) is an emergingnon-invasive ultrasound technique that makes it possible to measure velocities at any point of the ventricular wall during the cardiac cycle. Over the last ten years, TDI has been proposed as a feasible and useful imaging tool that provides information on regional wall motion dynamics.
Along with a high local resolution, the cardiac CT imaging also requires a high time resolution where the image data acquisition must be synchronised with the cardiac cycle by means of parallel ECG recording, and the measuring volume must be acquired in a single breathhold cycle. The multi-slice CT copes well with these requirements as it allows for acquiring continuous volume data sets of the…
The evaluation of the size and function of the left ventricle in patients with suspected heart disease is a central diagnostic problem. In contrast to other methods of evaluating left-ventricular function (e.g., angiocardiography, right-sided heart catheterization, radionuclide ventriculography or MRI), transthoracic echocardiography is a widespread and readily available procedure that is not…
Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) and contrast echocardiography open up new possibilities for exactly representing and assessing functional cardiac disturbances. This was the topic discussed by Dr. Harald Becher of John Radcliff Hospital, Oxford, and Dr. Jörg Strotmann of the University Clinic Würzburg in the framework of the Toshiba workshop “New approaches in echocardiography” at the European…
Multislice computed tomography (MS CT), which was introduced to clinical imaging as fourslice detectors in 1998 has fully proven its superior performance over conventional scanner technology. For example, it provides optimized resolution of detail and increased scan speed. Simultaneously, this technology has opened new indications for computed tomography, for example, in heart imaging. However,…
It has long been known that remaining at high altitudes leads to an increase in pulmonary arterial pressure caused by hypoxia. Its effects on cardiac function have also been considered well documented. The increase in pressure in the pulmonary circulation causes an enlargement of the right ventricle and thereby causes a displacement of the left ventricle that is accompanied by a relaxation…
Because of the rapid technical and scientific development over the past few years, multislice computer tomography of the heart has become increasingly established in the clinical routine. This requires, among other things, knowledge of the anatomy of the coronary arteries, the meaningful evaluation of the calcium score and the appropriate reproduction of the function of the left ventricle.
It has long been known that hypoxia at high altitudes leads to an increase of pulmonaryarterial pressure. For sensitive persons, one crucial factor for the development of HAPE is the overwhelming rise in pressure in the pulmonary circulation. Using right heart catheterization average pulmonary-arterial pressures of 60 mmHg were encountered in earlier studies of HAPE patients. A pressure increase…
Located in the southeastern part of Brussels, the “Cliniques de l'Europe” is a group of three clinics: Saint Elisabeth, Deux Alices and St. Michel. Over a period of several years, our organization has been restructured and adapted to the needs of this facility which serves a local population of approximately 250,000. Cliniques de l'Europe has at its disposal a complete range of dedicated…
Spiral computed tomography first allowed the seamless acquisition of entire volumina without first separating them into individual slices. With the newest generation of MSCT devices having the 16-slice technology, short gantry rotation time of < 0.5 seconds, and a high performance processor, it is now possible to acquire large amounts of data in a short period of time with high spatial and…
Among invasive cardiac catheterization diagnostic methods selective coronary angiography is the gold standard for directly visualizing the coronary system. It allows a definitive and precise diagnosis of coronary heart disease and thus serves as the rational basis for further revascularization procedures.
63-year-old male with stable angina. The coronary angiogram showed vessel disease with significant stenosis in the proximal LAD and in the middle of the LCX. PCI with stent performed the day before the CT Angio. The patient was referred to the Aquilion 64 for follow-up.