MRI Scan 'Better' For Heart Patients
Saturday, December 31, 2011
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan for coronary heart disease is best than the foremost commonly-used different, a significant UK trial of heart disease patients has shown.
The findings by University of Leeds researchers may modification the means that individuals with suspected heart disease are assessed, doubtless avoiding the requirement for tests that are invasive or use ionising radiation.
Full results of the study, that was funded by a £1.3 million grant from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), were printed on-line by the Lancet medical journal.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) could be a leading reason behind death and incapacity worldwide. In the US, an estimated eighteen million men and ladies reside with the condition, leading to an estimated value to the economy of $177.1 billion in 2010.
CHD is caused when important arteries serving the guts become narrowed or blocked by a build-up of fatty substances. this could cause severe chest pain, called angina, and if the condition worsens and remains untreated, patients could have a heart attack.
Patients with chest pain who are suspected of getting angina can usually be sent to hospital for any tests. These tests can make sure the diagnosis of CHD and facilitate doctors elect the most effective course of treatment, which can involve drug therapy, a balloon 'stretch and stent' procedure to open-up narrowings within the heart's blood vessels - or a heart bypass operation.
At the instant, patients with suspected angina are presumably to own either an angiogram - an invasive take a look at where dye is injected directly into the heart's arteries - or a non-invasive imaging take a look at referred to as SPECT. not like MRI scans, angiograms and SPECT tests each involve ionising radiation.
A five-year study by University of Leeds researchers, involving 752 patients, has currently shown that an MRI scan could be a reliable means of detecting signs of great CHD. The researchers additionally showed that MRI was higher than SPECT at diagnosing CHD and at ruling out heart disease in patients who didn't have the condition.
This is the primary time that MRI has been compared head-to-head against the 'gold standard' tests for CHD in such an outsized cluster of patients. The results could currently lead healthcare policy-makers to re-think steerage on the tests that patients with suspected CHD ought to be offered.
University of Leeds' Dr John Greenwood, who led the study, said: "We have shown convincingly that of the choices out there to doctors in diagnosing coronary heart disease, MRI is best than the additional commonly-used SPECT imaging take a look at. further as being additional correct, it's the advantage of not using any ionising radiation, sparing patients and health professionals from unnecessary exposure."
"The MRI technique may be used widely and not simply within the UK," Dr Greenwood added. "The scans were all dispensed on a typical one.5 Tesla scanner - precisely the kind of MRI scanner that you just would realize in most hospitals nowadays."
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "For patients suffering with chest pains, there are variety of tests which will be used to make your mind up whether or not their symptoms are because of coronary heart disease or not. This analysis shows that a full MRI scan is best than the foremost commonly used different - a SPECT scan employing a radioactive tracer.
"MRI has the extra advantage that it does not involve radiation. At present, not all hospitals have the experience to undertake such scans however these findings offer clear proof that MRI ought to be additional widely utilized in the longer term."
The findings by University of Leeds researchers may modification the means that individuals with suspected heart disease are assessed, doubtless avoiding the requirement for tests that are invasive or use ionising radiation.
Full results of the study, that was funded by a £1.3 million grant from the British Heart Foundation (BHF), were printed on-line by the Lancet medical journal.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) could be a leading reason behind death and incapacity worldwide. In the US, an estimated eighteen million men and ladies reside with the condition, leading to an estimated value to the economy of $177.1 billion in 2010.
CHD is caused when important arteries serving the guts become narrowed or blocked by a build-up of fatty substances. this could cause severe chest pain, called angina, and if the condition worsens and remains untreated, patients could have a heart attack.
Patients with chest pain who are suspected of getting angina can usually be sent to hospital for any tests. These tests can make sure the diagnosis of CHD and facilitate doctors elect the most effective course of treatment, which can involve drug therapy, a balloon 'stretch and stent' procedure to open-up narrowings within the heart's blood vessels - or a heart bypass operation.
At the instant, patients with suspected angina are presumably to own either an angiogram - an invasive take a look at where dye is injected directly into the heart's arteries - or a non-invasive imaging take a look at referred to as SPECT. not like MRI scans, angiograms and SPECT tests each involve ionising radiation.
A five-year study by University of Leeds researchers, involving 752 patients, has currently shown that an MRI scan could be a reliable means of detecting signs of great CHD. The researchers additionally showed that MRI was higher than SPECT at diagnosing CHD and at ruling out heart disease in patients who didn't have the condition.
This is the primary time that MRI has been compared head-to-head against the 'gold standard' tests for CHD in such an outsized cluster of patients. The results could currently lead healthcare policy-makers to re-think steerage on the tests that patients with suspected CHD ought to be offered.
University of Leeds' Dr John Greenwood, who led the study, said: "We have shown convincingly that of the choices out there to doctors in diagnosing coronary heart disease, MRI is best than the additional commonly-used SPECT imaging take a look at. further as being additional correct, it's the advantage of not using any ionising radiation, sparing patients and health professionals from unnecessary exposure."
"The MRI technique may be used widely and not simply within the UK," Dr Greenwood added. "The scans were all dispensed on a typical one.5 Tesla scanner - precisely the kind of MRI scanner that you just would realize in most hospitals nowadays."
Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "For patients suffering with chest pains, there are variety of tests which will be used to make your mind up whether or not their symptoms are because of coronary heart disease or not. This analysis shows that a full MRI scan is best than the foremost commonly used different - a SPECT scan employing a radioactive tracer.
"MRI has the extra advantage that it does not involve radiation. At present, not all hospitals have the experience to undertake such scans however these findings offer clear proof that MRI ought to be additional widely utilized in the longer term."
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