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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
New MRI Imaginging Technique
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD - DLB, Dec 02, 1999 12:00AM
As it is still experimental,I would not yet recommend its use outside of research trials. For now, I would recommend exercise stress testing with either echocardiography or nuclear scanning to detect significant blockages noninvasively.
I read that heart attack risk detection was improved with "Enhanced" MRI. This was the finding of researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. The post to InteliHealth reported that, "The traditional treadmill stress test can detect whether a coronary artery is narrowing, and reducing the blood supply to the heart. But unlike the treadmill test, the enhanced MRI utilizing software developed at Mt. Sinai can detect soft plaque, which is believed to cause 70 percent of heart attacks." That is because, "Soft plaque is much more likely than hardened plaque to break loose from artery wall and cause a clot, which leads to a heart attack." If these preliminary study findings are confirmed by further studies, would not Enhanced MRI replace treadmill stress testing to diagnose heart disease, and be a mechanism for testing the drugs and other therapies that reduce cholesterol in patients who can have MRIs? Could you comment on this "Enhanced" MRI and it's significance to this Forum's readers?
Sincerely,
Ginny