Skip to main content

Choosing Appropriate Imaging Techniques

  • Chapter
Essential Cardiology

Abstract

In this chapter, a logical approach to choosing among the various cardiac imaging techniques is proposed. Imaging modalities most commonly employed in the evaluation of cardiac disease are chest roentgenography, cardiac angiography, radionuclide imaging, ultrasonography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Electrocardiography and electrophysiologic studies, though crucial in the evaluation of cardiac electrical abnormalities, are technically not imaging modalities. The decision algorithm requires a basic knowledge of the imaging modalities themselves, including their indications and contraindications, which have been described in the preceding chapters. Most important, however, the treating physician should formulate a clear clinical question which will guide selecting an appropriate imaging test. Most cardiac clinical scenarios can be thought of in terms of questions of structure, function, or both.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Gibbons RJ, Chatterjee K, Daley J, et al. ACC/AHA/ACP-ASIM guidelines for the management of patients with chronic stable angina: executive summary and recommendations. A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Committee on Management of Patients with Chronic Stable Angina). Circulation 1999;99:2829–2848.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Janowitz WR. CT imaging of coronary artery calcium as an indicator of atherosclerotic disease: an overview. J Thorac Imaging 2001;16:2–7.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Guthrie RB, Vlodaver Z, Nicoloff DM, Edwards JE. Pathology of stable and unstable angina pectoris. Circulation 1975;51:1059–1063.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Burke AP, Farb A, Malcom GT, et al. Coronary risk factors and plaque morphology in men with coronary disease who died suddenly. N Engl J Med 1997;336:1276–1282.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Falk E, Shah PK, Fuster V. Coronary plaque disruption. Circulation 1995;92:657–671.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Burke AP, Farb A, Pestaner J, et al. Traditional risk factors and the incidence of sudden coronary death with and without coronary thrombosis in blacks. Circulation 2002;105:419–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Gertz SD, Malekzadeh S, Dollar AL, et al. Composition of atherosclerotic plaques in the four major epicardial coronary arteries in patients greater than or equal to 90 years of age. Am J Cardiol 1991;67:1228–1233.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Stary HC, Chandler AB, Dinsmore RE, et al. A definition of advanced types of atherosclerotic lesions and a histological classification of atherosclerosis. A report from the Committee on Vascular Lesions of the Council on Arteriosclerosis, American Heart Association. Circulation 1995;92:1355–1374.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Taylor AJ, Merz CN, Udelson JE. 34th Bethesda Conference: Executive summary-can atherosclerosis imaging techniques improve the detection of patients at risk for ischemic heart disease? J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;41:1860–1862.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Ramani K, Judd RM, Holly TA, et al. Contrast magnetic resonance imaging in the assessment of myocardial viability in patients with stable coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction. Circulation 1998;98:2687–2694.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Klocke FJ, Baird MG, Lorell BH, et al. ACC/AHA/ASNC guidelines for the clinical use of cardiac radionuclide imaging-executive summary: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (ACC/AHA/ASNC Committee to Revise the 1995 Guidelines for the Clinical Use of Cardiac Radionuclide Imaging). J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;42:1318–1333.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Antman EM, Cohen M, Bernink PJ, et al. The TIMI risk score for unstable angina/non-ST elevation MI: a method for prognostication and therapeutic decision making. JAMA 2000;284:835–842.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Butman SM, Olson HG, Gardin JM, et al. Submaximal exercise testing after stabilization of unstable angina pectoris. J Am Coll Cardiol 1984;4:667–673.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Stein RA, Chaitman BR, Balady GJ, et al. Safety and utility of exercise testing in emergency room chest pain centers: an advisory from the Committee on Exercise, Rehabilitation, and Prevention, Council on Clinical Cardiology, American Heart Association. Circulation 2000;102:1463–1467.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Gibbons RJ, Balady GJ, Bricker JT, et al. ACC/AHA 2002 guideline update for exercise testing: summary article: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Committee to Update the 1997 Exercise Testing Guidelines). Circulation 2002;106:1883–1892.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Braunwald E, Antman EM, Beasley JW, et al. ACC/AHA 2002 guideline update for the management of patients with unstable angina and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction-summary article: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association task force on practice guidelines (Committee on the Management of Patients With Unstable Angina). J Am Coll Cardiol 2002;40:1366–1374.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Martinez JE, Mohiaddin RH, Kilner PJ, et al. Obstruction in extracardiac ventriculopulmonary conduits: value of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging with velocity mapping and Doppler echocardiography. J Am Coll Cardiol 1992;20:338–344.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Askenazi J, Ahnberg DS, Korngold E, et al. Quantitative radionuclide angiocardiography: detection and quantitation of left to right shunts. Am J Cardiol 1976;37:382–387.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Lowry RW, Zoghbi WA, Baker WB, et al. Clinical impact of transesophageal echocardiography in the diagnosis and management of infective endocarditis. Am J Cardiol 1994;73:1089–1091.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Hatle LK, Appleton CP, Popp RL. Differentiation of constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy by Doppler echocardiography. Circulation 1989;79:357–370.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Sechtem U, Higgins CB, Sommerhoff BA, et al. Magnetic resonance imaging of restrictive cardiomyopathy. Am J Cardiol 1987;59:480–482.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Sutton FJ, Whitley NO, Applefeld MM. The role of echocardiography and computed tomography in the evaluation of constrictive pericarditis. Am Heart J 1985;109:350–355.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Schoenfeld MH, Supple EW, Dec GW Jr, et al. Restrictive cardiomyopathy versus constrictive pericarditis: role of endomyocardial biopsy in avoiding unnecessary thoracotomy. Circulation 1987;75:1012–1017.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Rezai K, Weiss R, Stanford W, et al. Relative accuracy of three scintigraphic methods for determination of right ventricular ejection fraction: a correlative study with ultrafast computed tomography. J Nucl Med 1991;32:429–435.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Pattynama PM, Lamb HJ, Van der Velde EA, et al. Reproducibility of MRI-derived measurements of right ventricular volumes and myocardial mass. Magn Reson Imaging 1995;13:53–63.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Reiter SJ, Rumberger JA, Feiring AJ, Stanford W, Marcus ML. Precision of measurements of right and left ventricular volume by cine computed tomography. Circulation 1986;74:890–900.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Tam JW, Shaikh N, Sutherland E. Echocardiographic assessment of patients with hypertrophic and restrictive cardiomyopathy: imaging and echocardiography. Curr Opin Cardiol 2002;17:470–477.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Garcia MJ, Thomas JD, Klein AL. New Doppler echocardiographic applications for the study of diastolic function. J Am Coll Cardiol 1998;32:865–875.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Paelinck BP, Lamb HJ, Bax JJ, et al. Assessment of diastolic function by cardiovascular magnetic resonance. Am Heart J 2002;144:198–205.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. The PIOPED Investigators. Value of the ventilation/perfusion scan in acute pulmonary embolism. Results of the prospective investigation of pulmonary embolism diagnosis (PIOPED). JAMA 1990;263:2753–2759.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Garg K, Welsh CH, Feyerabend AJ, et al. Pulmonary embolism: diagnosis with spiral CT and ventilation-perfusion scanning-correlation with pulmonary angiographic results or clinical outcome. Radiology 1998;208:201–208.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Schoepf UJ, Costello P. CT angiography for diagnosis of pulmonary embolism: state of the art. Radiology 2004;230:329–337.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Diffin DC, Leyendecker JR, Johnson SP, et al. Effect of anatomic distribution of pulmonary emboli on interobserver agreement in the interpretation of pulmonary angiography. AJR Am J Roentgenol 1998;171:1085–1089.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Stein PD, Henry JW, Gottschalk A. Reassessment of pulmonary angiography for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism: relation of interpreter agreement to the order of the involved pulmonary arterial branch. Radiology 1999;210:689–691.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Wells PS, Anderson DR, Rodger M, et al. Excluding pulmonary embolism at the bedside without diagnostic imaging: management of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism presenting to the emergency department by using a simple clinical model and d-dimer. Ann Intern Med 2001;135:98–107.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Kruip MJ, Slob MJ, Schijen JH, et al. Use of a clinical decision rule in combination with D-dimer concentration in diagnostic workup of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism: a prospective management study. Arch Intern Med 2002;162:1631–1635.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Dunn KL, Wolf JP, Dorfman DM, et al. Normal D-dimer levels in emergency department patients suspected of acute pulmonary embolism. J Am Coll Cardiol 2002;40:1475–1478.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Brown MD, Rowe BH, Reeves MJ, et al. The accuracy of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay D-dimer test in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism: a meta-analysis. Ann Emerg Med 2002;40:133–144.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. McCollough CH, Zink FE. Performance evaluation of a multi-slice CT system. Med Phys 1999;26:2223–2230.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Hu H, He HD, Foley WD, Fox SH. Four multidetector-row helical CT: image quality and volume coverage speed. Radiology 2000;215:55–62.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Hull RD, Raskob GE, Ginsberg JS, et al. A noninvasive strategy for the treatment of patients with suspected pulmonary embolism. Arch Intern Med 1994;154:289–297.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Skorton DJ, Brundage BH, Schelbert HR, Wolf GL. Relative merits of technical imaging techniques. In: Braunwald E. Heart Disease. W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1997, pp. 354, table 11–15.

    Google Scholar 

Recommended Readings

  1. Antman EM, Cohen M, Bernink PJ, et al. The TIMI risk score for unstable angina/non-ST elevation MI: a method for prognostication and therapeutic decision making. JAMA 2000;284:835–842.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Gibbons RJ, Balady GJ, Bricker JT, et al. ACC/AHA 2002 guideline update for exercise testing: summary article: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Committee to Update the 1997 Exercise Testing Guidelines). Circulation 2002;106:1883–1892.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Gibbons RJ, Chatterjee K, Daley J, et al. ACC/AHA/ACP-ASIM guidelines for the management of patients with chronic stable angina: executive summary and recommendations. A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Committee on Management of Patients with Chronic Stable Angina). Circulation 1999;99:2829–2848.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Klocke FJ, Baird MG, Lorell BH, et al. ACC/AHA/ASNC guidelines for the clinical use of cardiac radionuclide imaging-executive summary: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (ACC/AHA/ASNC Committee to Revise the 1995 Guidelines for the Clinical Use of Cardiac Radionuclide Imaging). J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;42:1318–1333.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2005 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fisher, J.E.E., Goldman, M.E. (2005). Choosing Appropriate Imaging Techniques. In: Rosendorff, C. (eds) Essential Cardiology. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-918-9_15

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-918-9_15

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-370-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-918-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics