Word: scanned
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...trouble is that there's no single type of scan that easily and inexpensively shows you everything you need to know about the heart. In addition, some tests are better at evaluating anatomy--the physical structure of the heart--while others tell you more about how well various parts are working. Doctors need to know both kinds of information before deciding the best course of treatment. Frequently, a new set of answers raises new questions, however, which require more extensive testing. The ultimate goal, cardiologists say, is to find the single test that provides "one-stop shopping" and eliminates...
...suspect a heart attack, it's hard to make the case for ordering a cardiac catheterization. But because she continues to complain of chest pains, doctors are reluctant to send her home. So they keep her under observation, waiting to see if anything happens. A 64-slice CT scan of her heart and lungs could provide enough detail to rule any of those conditions in or out on the spot...
...some of the smaller arteries of the heart. And any arterial plaques that contain calcium deposits, which typically appear in older people, show up like white blobs, so that the blockage could be partial or total (see box). Then there's the issue of radiation. A typical cardiac CT scan exposes a patient to 50 to 80 times the amount of radiation in a series of full-mouth dental X rays. Researchers hope to figure out ways to decrease the dose soon...
Before 64-slice CT appeared on the scene, many physicians thought the future of cardiac scans belonged to a completely different technology: magnetic resonance imaging. Instead of X rays, MRI uses powerful electromagnets that are tuned to detect the hydrogen found in water--which in turn is present in most of the body's soft tissues. An MRI machine can produce astonishingly detailed images of the heart. Just as important, it can also determine how healthy the cardiac tissue is. For example, in a heart-attack patient, an MRI can pick out precisely which sections of the cardiac muscle...
...cost, some MRI experts predict that will become less of an issue. "Right now many heart patients have to undergo a combination of tests that add up to more than the expense of one MRI scan," says Dr. Andrew Arai, a researcher at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md., who is studying the use of cardiac MRI in the emergency room. If a single MRI could replace the need for lots of echocardiograms, cardiac catheterizations and nuclear perfusion scans, it might be worth the price...