Siemens HeartView upgrades cardiac CT

A new computer package gives Siemens Medical Systems multislice CT scanners the ability to retrospectively visualize the heart and coronary arteries from data obtained during an ECG-gated study. Other capabilities, such as coronary calcium scoring, are included in the package.

The HeartView CT package is a hardware/software combination designed specifically for Somatom Volume Zoom and Somatom Volume Access scanners, Siemens' four-slice and two-slice scanners, respectively. Both operate on similar platforms and have half-second rotation times. This option synchronizes an ECG tracing with a CT acquisition, reconstructing data between the R-R intervals, when the heart is at relative rest.

"HeartView goes beyond calcium scoring and also gets into a retrospective technology that can work with CT angiography-type procedures to visualize coronary vessels," said Don Werner, Siemens' CT marketing manager.

Siemens expects HeartView to compete with x-ray angiography in imaging coronary artery stenosis, functional heart imaging, and mediastinal vessel and heart morphology, Werner said. Siemens touts cardiac CT as a minimally invasive alternative for following up patients who have undergone invasive procedures, such as insertion of grafts and stents or angioplasty.