Cardiac Imaging (Lecture 8)

Question 1

What are the advantages and disadvantages of X-rays with someone with chest pain?

Answer 1

Advantages: Cheap, portable, information about rest of the thorax.

Disadvantages: Limited spatial resolution, no physiological information.

Can determine the size of the heart and the risk of CAD etc.

Question 2

Advantages and disadvantage of invasive coronary angiogram?

Answer 2

Advantage: Allows percutanous therapy to be delivered, high spatial resolution of coronary arteries, advanced assessment of the coronary arteries.

Disadvantages: Invasive, radiation, limited information about non coronary anatomy.

Question 3

Advantages and disadvantes of echocardiogram?

What can a echo tell you?

Answer 3

Advantages: Portable, cheap, fast, physiological information, real time imaging.

Disadvantage: Operator dependant, patient dependant.

It can tell you if there is tissue which is not contracting correctly, it can also tell you if valves are moving properly, can tell you if lumen size is normal.

Question 4

What does a transoesophageal echo tell you a lot about?

Answer 4

The mitral valve.

Question 5

What is the advantages and disadvantages of Cardiac CT angiography?

Answer 5

Advantages: best non-invasive test for anotomy of the coronary arteries; good for cross sectional anatomy.

Disadvantages: Expensive, radiation, hard to see through calcium, limited physiological findings, extra-cardiac findings.

Question 6

Advantages and disadvantages of Cardiac MRI?

Answer 6

Advantages: best for structural anatomy; physiological infomation; tissue characterisation.

Disadvantages: Very expensive; technically demanding; patient dependant; ICA or CCTA better for coronary information; echo is better for flow.