The advanced CT scanners, she says, produce pictures within five to 10 seconds, while cardiac catheterization, which also checks the function of heart valves and muscle, takes between 30 minutes and 45 minutes to perform, and requires almost an hour for recovery. Potential complications from the invasive procedure include infection, heart attack and stroke, but they are rare. "And we no longer need to wait until a patient is stabilized before performing this diagnostic test, as no anesthetic is needed for CT scanning," says Miller.

According to researchers, nearly 5,000 64-CT scanners are installed worldwide, and about four-fifths of the centers are equipped to perform and read cardiac CTs. Miller notes that special training and certification are required by technicians and physicians to accurately perform, interpret and read the scanned images. The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology Foundation in 2005 jointly established training guidelines.


The CT scanner used in the study was an Aquilion 64 CFX multislice CT scanner, manufactured by Toshiba. Similar devices also are manufactured by Siemens and General Electric. Each machine costs between $1.5 million and $2 million. A single test costs approximately $700.

Toshiba also provided funding support for the study, called CORE-64, short for Coronary Artery Evaluation using 64-row Multidetector Computed Tomography.

In CT imaging, each X-ray measurement lasts just a fraction of a second and represents a "slice" of an organ or tissue. The greater the number of
detectors - the device being used in this study has a total of 64 - the better the picture resolution. A computer then uses these slices to reconstruct highly detailed, 3-D images of the heart and surrounding arteries. In cardiac imaging, a patient is injected with a contrast solution to increase the visual detail.

Besides Lima and Miller, other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in this study were Armin Zadeh, M.D.; Ilan Gottlieb, M.D.: Edward Shapiro, M.D.: Albert Lardo, Ph.D.; David Bush, M.D.; Christopher Cox, Ph.D.; and Jeffrey Brinker, M.D.
Additional investigators included Carolos E. Rochitte, from the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil; Marc Dewey, from Humbolt University in Charite, Germany; Hiroyuki Niinuma, from Iwate Medical University in Japan; Narinder Paul, from the University ofToronto in Canada; Melvin Clouse, from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, Mass.; John Hoe, from Mount Elizabeth Hospital of Singapore; and Albert de Roos, from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

(Presentation title: Coronary artery evaluation using 64-row, multidetector computed tomography angiography (CORE-64), results of a multicenter trial to assess the diagnostic accuracy and predictive ability compared with conventional angiography.)

Back to HCB News

More Industry Headlines