New Computerized Scans Effective for Spotting Clogge... (over the age of 40 who were scheduled to...)

New Computerized Scans Effective for Spotting Clogged Arteries

Date:11/5/2007

over the age of 40 who were scheduled to have cardiac catheterization to check for blocked arteries. Each underwent a 64-CT scan prior to catheterization. The patients were then monitored through regular check-ups to identify who developed or did not develop coronary artery disease and who required bypass surgery and who did not.

After the first year of monitoring, the researchers found that results from 64-CT scans matched up 90 percent of the time with results from invasive catheterization in detecting patients with blockages. The researchers also found that 64-CT scans were 83 percent to 90 percent accurate, while tests using older, 16-CT scans were in some cases only 20 percent to 30 percent as precise. The trial is to continue until 2009.

In cardiac catheterization, a thin tube is inserted into a blood vessel in the groin area to the heart's arteries, where a dye is injected to produce a clear X-ray image of the beating heart and its arterial blood supply. In CT imaging, computer-driven machinery passes X-rays through the body, producing digitized signals or "slices" that are detected and reconstructed for a precise picture.

The new study also suggests that the new scanners, four times faster than the more widely used 16-CT scans, may be a good alternative to cardiac stress testing, which evaluates heart function by measuring the effects of hard exercising. Exercise stress testing typically can't be done on the weak and elderly.

"Use of 64-CT scans will dramatically improve our ability to detect and treat people with suspected coronary disease and chest pain much earlier in their disease," said Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Joao Lima, senior investigator with the study. "Cardiac catheterization is still the gold standard for evaluating clogged arteries, but our results show that this test could easily be the best backup or alternative."

Blocked arteries are the most frequent cause of heart attack, Lima said. Th
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