MDCT just as accurate as MRI in assessing myocardial infarction in emergency settingAugust 05, 2008Multidetector CT (MDCT) is just as accurate as MRI in assessing myocardial infarct size--an important predictor of clinical outcome-- in an emergency setting according to a recent study conducted by researchers in collaboration between the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, CA and the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France. "The size of the infarct is one of the most important predictors of long-term left ventricular function in patients with an acute myocardial infarction," said Loic Boussel, MD, lead author of the study. "Imaging of myocardial infarct size is difficult in the emergency setting as the current 'gold standard' methods of delayed enhanced MRI and nuclear medicine techniques are difficult to perform in unstable patients. CT is very easy and quick to perform even at the acute phase so we wanted to find out if it can do the same job as MRI and potentially provide further information," he said. The study included 19 patients with acute myocardial infarction who underwent delayed enhanced MDCT immediately after coronary angioplasty and underwent delayed enhanced MRI within eight days of angioplasty. The study showed that there was agreement between MRI and MDCT. MDCT had a sensitivity and specificity of 87.6% and 97.7% for the classification of the volume of the myocardial infarct when compared to MRI. Dr. Boussel noted that MDCT did not require an additional contrast injection and is very practical in an emergency setting. American Roentgen Ray Society |
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| Related Myocardial Infarction Current Events and Myocardial Infarction News Articles Survival after heart attack improves in younger women In recent years, women, particularly younger women, experienced larger improvements in hospital mortality after myocardial infarction (MI) than men, according to a study published in the Oct. 26, 2009 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Cost Effectiveness of Blood Pressure Device Evaluated A study conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) demonstrates that, for certain patient populations, an experimental device that lowers blood pressure may be a cost effective treatment. The implantable device, called Rheos, is in advanced stages of testing for individuals with drug resistant hypertension. Drug-eluting stents better than bare-metal stents for heart attack patients Late-breaking data from the landmark HORIZONS-AMI clinical trial, presented at the 21st annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, demonstrated that after two years, in heart attack patients, the use of a drug-eluting stent (paclitaxel) was safer and more effective than a bare-metal stent; and that the administration of the anticoagulant medication bivalirudin enhanced safety and efficacy compared to the use of heparin + GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors. SPIRIT IV trial shows everolimus stent sets new standard for event-free survival Late-breaking data from SPIRIT IV, a large-scale multi-center study of nearly 4,000 patients in the U.S., shows that an everolimus-eluting stent demonstrated enhanced safety and efficacy in the treatment of de novo native coronary artery lesions when compared to a paclitaxel-eluting stent, and showed that "low late loss" may be achieved with drug-eluting stents without sacrificing safety. A consistent decline in heart attack rates following the implementation of smoking bans Strongly enforced legislation to restrict smoking produces rapid and substantial reductions in community rates of heart attack, according to a meta-analysis published today in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association. Pre-hospital organization: The first links in the chain of survival for heart attack patients Mortality rate following a heart attack has fallen by more than 50% in Europe over the past 25 years. However, because only minor advances in the medical treatment of AMI are expected over the next decade, it is through organisational changes in the pre-hospital phase that mortality rate will continue this decline to below 5%. Stent for life initiative Primary angioplasty (with stent implantation) is the most effective therapy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but it is not available to many patients, even though most European countries have sufficient resources (ie, catheterisation laboratories) for its wider use. GERD negatively impacts sleep quality, results in considerable economic burden There has been much debate about the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and sleep. Results from the Kyoto heart study The KYOTO HEART Study, which took place in Japan between January 2004 and January 2009, shows that the addition of valsartan to conventional antihypertensive treatment to improve blood pressure control is associated with an improved cardiovascular outcome in Japanese hypertensive patients at high risk of CVD events. Aspirin works for primary prevention in moderate and high risk diabetics The beneficial effects of aspirin in primary prevention of cardiovascular events i.e. stroke, MI and cardiac death are known and generally accepted. More Myocardial Infarction Current Events and Myocardial Infarction News Articles |
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