Paper of the Week

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance and single-photon emission computed tomography for diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CE-MARC): a prospective trial

The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 23 December 2011doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61335-4

Dr Greenwood and cols in a prospective trial studied patients with suspected angina pectoris and at least one cardiovascular risk factor were scheduled for CMR, SPECT, and invasive x-ray coronary angiography. The primary outcome was diagnostic accuracy of CMR. In the 752 recruited patients, 39% had significant CHD as identified by x-ray angiography. For multiparametric CMR the sensitivity was 86·5% (95% CI 81·8—90·1), specificity 83·4% (79·5—86·7), positive predictive value 77·2%, (72·1—81·6) and negative predictive value 90·5% (87·1—93·0). The sensitivity of SPECT was 66·5% (95% CI 60·4—72·1), specificity 82·6% (78·5—86·1), positive predictive value 71·4% (65·3—76·9), and negative predictive value 79·1% (74·8—82·8). The sensitivity and negative predictive value of CMR and SPECT differed significantly (p<0·0001 for both) but specificity and positive predictive value did not (p=0·916 and p=0·061, respectively). They concluded that cardiac magnetic resonance is the largest, prospective, real world evaluation of CMR and has established CMR's high diagnostic accuracy in coronary heart disease and CMR's superiority over SPECT. It should be adopted more widely than at present for the investigation of coronary heart disease.

PAPER OF THE WEEK

Reference Values for Normal Pulmonary Artery Dimensions by Noncontrast

Cardiac Computed Tomography: The Framingham Heart Study

Dr. Truong et al, studied 3171 asymptomatic patients and measured the main pulmonary artery transverse axial diameter. For simplicity, they established 29 mm in men and 27 mm in women as sex specific normative reference values for mPA and 0.9 for ratio PA.

SCMR Newsletter 03/2011

Link here.

Juliano

Call for Associate Editor, Case of the Week

Call for Associate Editor, Case of the Week:

Interested candidates please send your CV to c.bucciarelli-ducci@rbht.nhs.uk. Interviews will take place during SCMR 2012 meeting. Applications from Asia and South America are particularly encouraged.

Short term buying

More than half will stay put and not upgrade their machines in the next year.

Juliano