Radiation Issues
Significant advances in modern radiology and cardiology have made noninvasive cardiac imaging more effective and appealing. With the introduction of 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scanners in 2004, the improved spatial…
Cardiac Devices
The rapid evolution of devices in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac disease poses a challenge to the imaging professional. Devices are often readily apparent on imaging, yet extrapolating their…
Cardiovascular Anatomy and Pathology on Radiography
To lay the foundation for a discussion of thoracic cardiovascular disease, this chapter begins with an introductory review of anatomy on the chest radiograph. Central venous catheters are then used…
Atherosclerosis: Role of Calcium Scoring
Six hundred fifty thousand asymptomatic patients with no known coronary artery disease (CAD) present with acute coronary events annually. These patients represent a grand failure of the current risk assessment…
Imaging for Congenital Cardiovascular Disease
Imaging of congenital heart disease is a complex and challenging topic that until recently was almost exclusively the domain of pediatric radiologists and cardiologists. With advances in surgical and percutaneous…
Cardiac Valves
History Since their inception in the 1950s, cardiac valve prostheses have undergone remarkable improvements, yet their fundamental construction has remained largely unchanged. The prosthetic cardiac valve is inextricably linked to…
Cardiac Computed Tomography for the Evaluation of Acute Coronary Syndrome in the Emergency Department
From 1999 through 2008, most visits to the emergency departments (EDs) in the United States by adult patients (≥15 years old) were mainly for chest and abdominal pain, according to…
Role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Cardiomyopathies
The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in cardiac diseases has been advancing rapidly, and this technique has become the gold standard for diagnosing many of the pathologic conditions encountered…
Echocardiography
Echocardiography uses high-frequency sound waves to generate images of cardiac structures and to provide information regarding blood flow and valvular function. The introduction of two-dimensional (2-D) echocardiography into routine clinical…
Cardiac Anatomy on Coronary Angiography
Tremendous advances in understanding of the circulatory system stemmed from the groundbreaking work of Claude Bernard, a French physiologist who performed cardiac catheterization of an equine heart in 1844. However,…
