AZ Sint-Jan AV Hospital in Bruges adapts to the new IMPAX Cardiovascular Suite
Among its many specialties, the 909-bed AZ Sint-Jan AV Hospital in Bruges, Belgium, has a high level of expertise in cardiac catheterisations and electrophysiology.
Cardiology
Philips to acquire Tomcat Systems
Royal Philips Electronics recently announced it will acquire TOMCAT Systems Ltd., based in Northern Ireland. Terms of this acquisition were not disclosed. TOMCAT offers a software solution to collect and aggregate data relative to the cardiac care of patients, and allows for a comprehensive, patient-centric presentation of this data to care givers such as doctors and nurses.
A danger to patients' security and privacy?
Unexpected risks my result from today's medical devices, such as implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers, if they are equipped with wireless technology to enable remote device checks.
Cardiology 'must be evidence-based' says ACC
Ian Mason reports from Chicago
Computed tomography versus magnetic resonance imaging of the heart
Competitive or complementary? By Florian Schwarz BS, Balazs Ruzsics MD PhD and U. Joseph Schoepf MD, of the Radiology and Medicine Departments, at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA.
The new IMPAX Solution Suite
Agfa Healthcare's new IMPAX solution suites offer PACS and RIS to cover hospital data handling and cardiovascular, cardiology, orthopaedics, mammography and radiology data.
Thin client products aim to `unleash the potential of scanner technologies´
The Visage Thin Client product range on show at the ECR provides a fully-integrated system with advanced tools for 2-D, 3-D, and 4-D image review and interpretation, post-processing, data management, and image distribution.
"Choose, prioritise, compromise and juggle"
Professor Rémy-Jardin MD PhD heads the Department of Radiology and is Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Imaging at the Calmette Hospital, University Centre of Lille. She is also Professor of Radiology in Lille University's Medical Faculty.
AquilionONE - First Dynamic Volume Computed Tomography System
Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. introduced the world's first dynamic volume computed tomography system the AquilionONE. This advanced diagnostic imaging system revolutionizes can help reduce diagnosis time for life threatening diseases like stroke and heart disease from days and hours to mere minutes.
Philips unveils iCT
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.
A PACS solution for cardiology
Just in time for Medica, VISUS has expanded its products portfolio with a PACS solution for cardiology.
World's 1st cardiac motion evaluation in minutes
Toshiba's new Artida Ultrasound system is the world's first ultrasound system that can track and display myocardial wall motion three-dimensionally.
First implantable ventricular assist device for long-term use in development
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…
EU approves use of implantable defibrillator
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.
On show at RSNA 2007
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.
Growing market for CT systems in Europe
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.
Atrial Fibrillation monitoring
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.
Cardiologists meet to sum up progress
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.
Cardiac resynchronisation therapy
Switzerland - A clinical trial of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) in patients with advanced heart failure and a narrow QRS complex
Trial to raise awareness of gender and CVD
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.
Cardiac MSCT Study Assessment with Sure Plaque-Software
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…
Monitoring of Coronary Stenting
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
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.
Cardiac CT
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…
Automatic Quantification of Left-ventricular Function
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…
