A team of researchers led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) radiologists has developed a computed-tomography-based protocol that identifies both narrowing of coronary arteries and areas from where blood flow to heart muscle tissue is restricted, giving a better indication of clinically significant coronary artery disease. Their report appears in the September 15 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Ricardo C Cury, MD, a cardiac imaging specialist at the MGH Heart Center and the study’s principal investigator said “This is among the first demonstrations of the use of cardiac CT [computed tomography] to detect both coronary artery stenosis and resulting myocardial ischemia simultaneously in a single examination.”

Three London-based cardio anaesthetists have developed the world’s first virtual heart, known as HeartWorks. This virtual heart is a realistic computer generated model of the heart and an echocardiology simulator. By using it, medical students will be able to practice peri-operative transeosophagael echocardiology (an ultrasonic imaging technique) skills for patients with heart disease.

Siemens Healthcare will be unveiling the Acuson SC2000 volume imaging ultrasound system, the only one of its kind in the world to capture non-stitched real-time full-volume 3D images of the heart in one single heart cycle, during the European Congress of Radiology, August 30 – September 4, 2008 in Munich, Germany. Called “Echo in a Heartbeat”, this new technological innovation, said Klaus Hambuechen, CEO, Ultrasound, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., allows us to acquire a full volume of the entire heart with 90 degree pyramids. “With a high-volume acquisition rate like this – in one second, every second – acquisition time is dramatically reduced, improving the overall workflow in the echocardiography suite”, he said.