CardioExchange Archive

September 29th, 2014

American Heart Association: Pay More Attention to Radiation in Imaging Procedures

Larry Husten, PHD

The American Heart Association is urging physicians to better understand the risks of radiation in cardiac imaging procedures. When ordering these procedures physicians should understand the appropriate use of each procedure, the radiation dose associated with the procedure, and the risks associated with that dose. Both the risks and benefits should be fully explained and discussed […]

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June 9th, 2014

Wide Range of Radiation Dose in Children Undergoing Cardiac Procedures

Larry Husten, PHD

Children with heart disease are at increased risk for developing cancer later in life due to their exposure to radiation during imaging procedures. Since an ever-growing number of children with heart disease now reach adulthood, this may become an increasingly important public health issue. A new study published in Circulation offers some reassurance in finding that […]

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April 28th, 2014

Patient-Centered Imaging: How Best to Communicate the Benefits and Risks of Testing

Andrew Einstein, MD, PhD and John Ryan, MD

Andrew Einstein discusses his JACC paper on shared-decision making for cardiac imaging procedures that expose the patient to radiation.

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February 6th, 2014

Scrutinizing the ESC Position Paper on Radiation Safety in Cardiovascular Imaging

Reza Fazel, MD, MSc

Reza Fazel assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and implications of the ESC document.

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January 10th, 2014

ESC Spotlights Growing Problem of Radiation Exposure in Cardiology

Larry Husten, PHD

Both medical professionals and patients have a general sense that radiation used in medical imaging and procedures carries some danger, but they often underestimate the risk. And certainly most are unaware of the increasingly large proportion of the problem occurring during cardiology procedures. “Cardiologists today are the true contemporary radiologists,” said Eugenio Picano, lead author of […]

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October 28th, 2013

Radiation Dose Linked to Cardiac Risk in Breast Cancer Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

In the past, cardiovascular risk has been linked to the radiation dose received by breast cancer patients. Now, a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine attempts to calculate the cardiac risk of breast cancer patients today undergoing current radiotherapy protocols. David J. Brenner and colleagues calculated the excess cardiac risk for 48 patients who received radiotherapy at New […]

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March 13th, 2013

Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer Increases Heart Disease Risk

Larry Husten, PHD

The increased risk of radiotherapy for breast cancer seen in this NEJM study may just be the tip of the iceberg.

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August 29th, 2012

Pilot Study Demonstrates Feasibility of MRI-Guided Catheterization

Larry Husten, PHD

A small pilot study has demonstrated that it may one day be possible to replace x-rays with MRI to guide some cardiac catheterization procedures. As reported in the European Heart Journal, researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute (NHLBI) performed x-ray and MRI-guided transfemoral right heart catheterization in 16 patients (4 with shunt, 9 with […]

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January 19th, 2012

CT Angiography Found Less Helpful in Patients With High Calcium Scores

Larry Husten, PHD

Computed tomography angiography (CTA) has been proposed as a less invasive method to exclude obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), but no consensus has been achieved about its clinical role in different patient subsets. Now a new report published in JACC from the CORE-64 (Coronary Artery Evaluation Using 64-Row Multidetector Computed Tomography Angiography) study shows that CTA may not be […]

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May 18th, 2011

New Technique Cuts Radiation Dose of MPI SPECT by Half

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study raises the possibility that the radiation dose for MPI SPECT imaging can be reduced by half without sacrificing image quality, according to Dr. Nili Zafrir, who presented the results of the study this week at the International Conference of Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Imaging in Amsterdam. Recently, software has become available that can reduce the […]

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