Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports

Molecular imaging of cardiovascular disease is a powerful clinical and experimental approach that can inform our understanding of atherosclerosis biology. Complementing cross-sectional imaging techniques that provide detailed anatomical information, molecular imaging can further detect important biological changes occurring within atheroma, and refine the prediction of vascular complications. In addition, molecular imaging of atherosclerosis can illuminate underlying pathophysiology and serve as a surrogate end-point in clinical trials of new drugs...

Purpose of Review: Three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography (3DE) and 4-dimensional echocardiography (4DE), also known as real-time (RT) 3DE (RT3DE), are rapidly emerging technologies which have made significant impact in the clinical arena over the years. This review will discuss the recent applications of 3DE in diagnosing and treating different types of cardiovascular disease. Recent Findings: Recent studies using 3DE expanded on prior findings and introduced additional applications to different cardiac conditions...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cost-effective care pathways are integral to delivering sustainable healthcare programmes. Due to the overestimation of coronary artery disease using traditional risk tables, non-invasive testing has been utilised to improve risk stratification and initiate appropriate management to reduce the dependence on invasive investigations. In line with recent technological improvements, cardiac CT is a modality that offers a detailed anatomical assessment of coronary artery disease comparable to invasive coronary angiography...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this study was to review the recent randomised controlled trials of coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) for patients with stable coronary artery disease. RECENT FINDINGS: The initial results and subsequent papers from the SCOT-HEART (Scottish COmputed Tomography of the HEART) and PROMISE (PROspective Multicentre Imaging Study for Evaluation of chest pain) trials have shown that CCTA is a safe and appropriate addition to standard care or alternative to functional testing...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Inflammation is a key player in a wide range of cardiovascular and myocardial diseases. Given the numerous implications of inflammatory processes in disease initiation and progression, functional imaging modalities including positron emission tomography (PET) represent valuable diagnostic, prognostic, and monitoring tools in patient management. Since increased glucose metabolism is a hallmark of inflammation, PET using the radiolabeled glucose analog [18 F]-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-d-glucose (FDG) is the mainstay diagnostic test for nuclear imaging of (cardiac) inflammation...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with SPECT is performed clinically worldwide to detect and monitor coronary artery disease (CAD). MPI allows an objective quantification of myocardial perfusion at stress and rest. This established technique relies on normal databases to compare patient scans against reference normal limits. In this review, we aim to introduce the process of MPI quantification with normal databases and describe the associated perfusion quantitative measures that are used...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography is a well-validated non-invasive technique for accurate and expedient diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, a limitation of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) is its limited capability to identify physiologically significant stenoses, which may eventuate the need for further functional testing. Stress CT myocardial perfusion imaging (CT-MPI) is an emerging technique that has the ability to identify flow-limiting stenoses...

Progression of vulnerable coronary atherosclerotic plaques underlies the majority of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death episodes. Recent advances in biological/molecular imaging technology are now enabling the accurate identification of high-risk plaques and stents in living subjects. Due to their smaller caliber and susceptibility to cardiorespiratory motion, noninvasive molecular imaging of human coronary arteries remains challenging. Therefore, intravascular high-resolution molecular imaging approaches appear necessary to resolve molecular features of human coronary arteries and stents...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Myocardial infarction (MI) leading to heart failure displays an important cause of death worldwide. Adequate restoration of blood flow to prevent this transition is a crucial factor to improve long-term morbidity and mortality. Novel regenerative therapies have been thoroughly investigated within the past decades. RECENT FINDINGS: Increased angiogenesis in infarcted myocardium has shown beneficial effects on the prognosis of MI; therefore, the proangiogenic capacity of currently tested treatments is of specific interest...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Aortic valve disease is the most common form of heart valve disease in developed countries. Imaging remains central to the diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with both aortic stenosis and regurgitation and has traditionally been performed with echocardiography. Indeed, echocardiography remains the cornerstone of aortic valve imaging as it is cheap, widely available and provides critical information concerning valve hemodynamics and ventricular function. RECENT FINDINGS: Whilst diagnostic in the vast majority of patients, echocardiography has certain limitations including operator variability, potential for measurement errors and internal inconsistencies in severity grading...

Coronary computed tomography (CT) allows for the acquisition of thin slices of the heart and coronary arteries, which can be used to detect and quantify coronary artery calcium (CAC), a marker of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Despite the proven clinical value in cardiac risk prognostication, there remain concerns regarding radiation exposure from CAC CT scans. There have been several recent technical advancements that allow for significant radiation dose reduction in CAC scoring. This paper reviews the clinical utility and recent literature in low radiation dose CAC scoring...

Fractional flow reserve (FFR) measured during invasive coronary angiography is an independent prognosticator in patients with coronary artery disease and the gold standard for decision making in coronary revascularization. The integration of computational fluid dynamics and quantitative anatomic and physiologic modeling now enables simulation of patient-specific hemodynamic parameters including blood velocity, pressure, pressure gradients, and FFR from standard acquired coronary computed tomography (CT) datasets...

Diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease represent a major challenge to our health care systems affecting millions of patients each year. Until recently, the diagnosis of coronary artery disease could be conclusively determined only by invasive coronary angiography. To avoid risks from cardiac catheterization, many healthcare systems relied on stress testing as gatekeeper for coronary angiography. Advancements in cardiac computed tomography angiography technology now allows to noninvasively visualize coronary artery disease, challenging the role of stress testing as the default noninvasive imaging tool for evaluating patients with chest pain...

Mitral regurgitation (MR) is considered the most common valve disease with a prevalence of 2-3 % of significant regurgitation (moderate to severe and severe) in the general population. Accurate assessment of the severity of regurgitation was demonstrated to be of significant importance for patient management and prognosis and consequently has been widely recognized in recent guidelines. However, evaluation of severity of valvular regurgitation can be potentially difficult with the largest challenges presenting in cases of mitral regurgitation...

Traditional cardiovascular risk factors have well-known limitations for the accurate assessment of individual cardiovascular risk. Unlike risk factor-based scores which rely on probabilistic calculations derived from population-based studies, coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring, and carotid ultrasound allow for the direct visualization and quantification of subclinical atherosclerosis with the potential for a more accurate, personalized risk assessment and treatment approach. Among strategies used to guide preventive management, CAC scoring has consistently and convincingly outperformed traditional risk factors for the prediction of adverse cardiovascular events...

Fusion of different imaging modalities has gained increasing popularity over the last decade. However, most fusions are done between static rather than dynamic images. In order to adequately visualize the complex three-dimensional structures of the beating heart, high-temporal and spatial image resolutions are mandatory. Currently, only the combination of transesophageal echocardiography with fluoroscopy allows real-time image fusion of high quality during structural heart disease (SHD) interventions. The use of markers as well as real-time image overlay greatly facilitates communication between SHD team members and potentially increases procedural success while reducing radiation dose and use of contrast...

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) still remains one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Seven to fifteen percent of patients presenting with ACS have unobstructed coronary artery disease (CAD) on urgent angiography. Patients with ACS and unobstructed coronary arteries represent a clinical dilemma and their diagnosis and management is quite variable in current practice. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging with its unique non-invasive myocardial tissue characterization property has the potential to identify underlying etiologies and reach a final diagnosis...

Chronic total coronary occlusions (CTO) are documented in approximately one fifth of diagnostic invasive coronary angiographies (ICA). Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) of CTO are challenging and are accompanied by higher complication and lower success rates in comparison with non-CTO PCI. Scrutinous evaluation of ischemia and viability to justify percutaneous revascularization is therefore of importance to select eligible patients for such a procedure. Furthermore, knowledge of the anatomical features of the occlusion may predict the chances of success of PCI CTO and could even guide the procedural strategy to augment the likelihood of recanalization...

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) testing and coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) have significant data supporting their ability to identify coronary artery disease (CAD) and classify patient risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Evidence regarding CAC use for screening has established an excellent prognosis in patients with no detectable CAC, and the ability to risk re-classify the majority of asymptomatic patients considered intermediate risk by traditional risk scores. While data regarding the ideal management of CAC findings are limited, evidence supports statin consideration in patients with CAC > 0 and individualized aspirin therapy accounting for CAD risk factors, CAC severity, and factors which increase a patient's risk of bleeding...

Novel imaging techniques using biomarkers have clarified the mechanisms of hitherto unanswered or misunderstood phenomena of coronary artery disease and enabled evaluation of myocardial blood and tissue fluid flows in vivo. Dye-staining coronary angioscopy using Evans blue (EB) as the biomarker can visualize fibrin and damaged endothelial cells, revealing that the so-called platelet thrombus is frequently a fibrin-rich thrombus; occlusive transparent fibrin thrombus, but not platelet thrombus, is not infrequently a cause of acute coronary syndrome; "fluffy" coronary luminal surface is caused by fibrin threads arising from damaged endothelial cells and is a residue of an occlusive thrombus after autolysis in patients with acute coronary syndrome without angiographically demonstrable coronary stenosis; and web or membrane-like fibrin thrombus is a cause of stent edge restenosis...