New device scans heart's image within minutes

University Health Care doctors on Wednesday demonstrated a new computed tomography scanner that captures a heart's image in the time it takes a heart to beat once.

The device, the Definition Dual Source CT scanner, claims to be the fastest and most powerful in the region. And doctors said it can quickly diagnose coronary artery disease — even in its earliest stages while prevention is still possible — aortic dissection, pneumothorax and pulmonary embolism. Besides being fast, it's also completely noninvasive and delivers a lower dose of radiation than slower scans do.

"Coronary disease is the thing that kills the most people in this country," said cardiologist Dr. Sheldon Litwin. Most people don't have symptoms until they get severe chest pain or have a heart attack. So the goal has long been to find ways to detect heart disease before it's well-entrenched and deal with it to head off a heart attack.

Carolyn Larrivee, 58, understands the importance firsthand. She was skiing last March when she got severe chest pain, but she tried to ignore it as she made her way back down the hill. At the hospital, a contrast CT scan showed immediately she has some heart disease.

She now takes medication to reduce her cholesterol, works out on a treadmill an hour a day five times a week, has lost 15 pounds and pays attention to her heart. She is nursing director of the emergency department and critical care services at the hospital.

A typical CT scan relies on a slow heart rate, often made that way with beta blockers, to capture a clear image. With the dual-source CT, said Dr. Steve Stevens, radiologist at the U., the new ability to scan the entire heart in the time it takes to hold the breath one time usually makes that medication unnecessary. And that also eliminates delays spent waiting for the medication to take effect.

It provides a clear image of calcification and plaques. The information is available in as little as 15 minutes in an acute case, where time is very important.

And Litwin points out that most of the tests don't show early changes in the heart that can allow interventions before the negative effects turn into heart attack or stroke. "This really is ushering in the dawn of a new era," he said.

Once the image is taken, the physician can look at it from all directions on a computer screen, manipulating it to get the information needed to provide treatment. He can even track and examine a single blood vessel.

The device, made by Siemens, provides an alternative to angiography, which is invasive, and produces an image twice as fast with the lowest possible radiation, they said.

The U., which currently has the only dual-source CT scanner in the Intermountain West, can also use it to look for "brain attack" that signals stroke.

Stevens said technology isn't the only improvement in heart care. For one thing, both doctors and women are recognizing that women have similar heart-attack risks compared to men, but that it may show up with different symptoms.

While the scanner can be used on anyone, contrast is not used in certain cases, such as in patients with poor kidney function or those who might have a reaction to the contrast dyes, Stevens said.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com