Cardiac Imaging
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The Cardiac Imaging Section provides clinical noninvasive cardiac imaging services using the ultrasound imaging and computed tomography (CT) technologies. Among the equipment available for cardiac imaging are several high performance and several high-speed, high-resolution multi-detector CT (MDCT) scanners, including a 64-detector row CT scanners, making it the fastest available CT scanner, and yielding the best temporal resolution of any of the currently employed CT scanners. |
This allows us to perform noninvasive imaging of the structures of the heart, including the coronary arteries, great arteries and veins, cardiac chambers, muscle, and valves at higher heart rates than was previously possible. We also have the capability of performing prospective gating of the heart, a technique which significantly reduces the patient’s radiation exposure during cardiac CT angiography. Both cardiac ultrasound and CT can be used to provide high quality cross-sectional images of the heart and the great vessels, in any desired orientation. Both modalities are useful for evaluating anatomic cardiac abnormalities, such as cardiac masses or
congenital heart disease. CT provides better images of the coronary arteries than MRI, and it can be very helpful in detecting and characterizing atherosclerotic coronary artery disease as well as for evaluating coronary anomalies.