CE-MARK trial suggests cardiacmagnetic resonance may have ahigher accuracy than SPECT forcoronary heart disease

摘要

A large prospective study of patients with suspected angina pectoris has found that cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging may be superior to SPECT, in assessing coronary heart disease. The authors of the UK-based study funded by the British Heart Foundation and published in the Lancet, propose that CMR should be more widely used in the assessment of patients with suspected coronary heart disease.Patients presenting with chest pain at hospital are often suspected of having angina pectoris, a sign that the heart muscle is ischemic owing to coronary heart disease, suggesting that intervention such as medication or a stent may be required. The most widely used tests for assessing the level of ischemia are coronary angiograms, which are invasive dye-based procedures,and SPECT, which involves ionizing radiation. CMR is an increasingly prevalent procedure that uses MRI scans of the heart and is thus nonin-vasive and without the use of ionizing radiation.