"This work presents a new non-invasive cardiac imaging technology for the assessment of ischemic heart disease--also known as coronary artery or coronary heart disease--caused by the narrowing of heart arteries, which prevents blood and oxygen from reaching the heart muscle," said Zohar Keidar, deputy director of the nuclear medicine department at Rambam HealthCare Campus in Haifa, Israel. "This new modality (or technique) enables--in a single imaging session--accurate evaluation of cardiac blood vessel narrowing and blood supply to the heart muscles," said the co-author of "Assessment of Hemodynamically Significant Coronary Artery Lesions--Initial Experience With an Integrated SPECT/CT Device." He added, "These initial results suggest that this novel non-invasive imaging technology will enable more precise diagnosis of coronary artery disease, thus leading to treatment tailoring in the individual patient who may be directed to either invasive or conservative medical procedures."
In the United States, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both sexes. Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of cardiovascular disease, and as many as 3 to 4 million Americans may have ischemic episodes without knowing it.
Myocardial perfusion (blood flow) imaging using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is an established method for assessing the physiologic significance of coronary lesions in patients with chest pain, said Keidar. Computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA)--an emerging technique for non-invasive detection of the narrowing of a blood vessel (coronary stenosis)--is an X-ray-based exam of the blood vessels or chambers of
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Contact: Maryann Verrillo
mverrillo@snm.org
703-708-9000
Society of Nuclear Medicine
7-Jun-2006