Current utilization of cardiac computed tomography in mainland China: A national survey.

Background: Surveys that describe the utilization of cardiac CT are available for the United States, Germany, and Taiwan, but not mainland China.

Objectives: To analyze the clinical utilization of cardiac CT in mainland China.

Methods: A 25-item questionnaire was created and 240 tertiary hospitals were randomly selected to participate.

MESA: the NIH-sponsored study that validates atherosclerosis imaging for primary prevention.

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) score correlates strongly with the burden of atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries. It is the strongest predictor of future coronary events in asymptomatic individuals, being stronger than all traditional risk factors combined. It is also a better predictor of future events than carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) measurement for the prediction of coronary artery disease but slightly weaker than CIMT for the prediction of cerebrovascular events such as stroke.

Comparison of coronary artery calcium scores between electron beam computed tomography and 64-multidetector computed tomographic scanner.

Objective: Because almost all data currently available with coronary calcium scanning are from electron beam tomography (EBT), we assessed whether scores obtained with 64-multidetector computed tomography (CT; MDCT) are similar. We evaluated the interscan variation in coronary artery calcium (CAC), Agatston score (AS), and volume score (VS) between EBT and 64-MDCT (VCT; GE, Milwaukee, Wis).

Materials And Methods: One hundred two patients (mean age, 61.

Reproducibility of coronary artery calcified plaque with cardiac 64-MDCT: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Objective: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis is a longitudinal study evaluating determinants of future cardiac events and progression of atherosclerosis. Emerging data are showing that coronary artery calcification (CAC) is a robust independent predictor of future cardiac events and that measurement of progression depends on reproducibility of the measure. Reproducibility previously was reported on baseline scans obtained with both electron-beam tomography (EBT) and MDCT.

Multiphase contrast medium injection for optimization of computed tomographic coronary angiography.

Rationale And Objectives: Electron beam angiography is a minimally invasive imaging technique. Adequate vascular opacification throughout the study remains a critical issue for image quality. We hypothesized that vascular image opacification and uniformity of vascular enhancement between slices can be improved using multiphase contrast medium injection protocols.