CT innovators charge ahead in heart and vessels

The talk at the 2004 RSNA meeting was all about CT. Even with only the smallest handful of papers presented on 64-slice experience, radiologists discussed the latest generation of scanner as the new must-have equipment.

While still largely unproven, the potential is great, and the focus is on cardiovascular applications. The ability to characterize and quantify both calcified and soft plaques is hailed as a step up from older calcium scoring studies, even if the exact course of treatment for a given plaque burden is still uncertain. Studies of the heart's vessels are competitive with traditional angiography and ultrasound, though the need for further research remains.

In this supplement, Diagnostic Imaging looks at how CT technology is shaping cardiovascular imaging and practice: innovators who have been successful at obtaining reimbursement for studies, researchers who are testing the limits of plaque analysis, and teams of cardiologists and radiologists who are working together to ensure that each contributes expertise to cardiac evaluation and treatment built on these evolving techniques.