MGH Cardiac MR - CT (CMRCT) Program - Cardiac CT

Patient with normal coronary arteries in MDCT: Original axial image (left), maximum intensity projection showing proximal LAD and diagonal (midi), 3-D reconstruction (right).
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MDCT and IVUS in a patient with a non-obstructive plaque in the proximal LAD.
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The CMRCT program addresses both MR and CT development and clinical applications in an effort to determine the optimal imaging approaches for cardiac patients.

CARDIAC CT

Calcium Screening (CaS) for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
CT Coronary Angiography
Myocardial Perfusion Measurements
Myocardial Function Measurements
Characterization of Vulnerable Plaque
Novel Instrumentation

CARDIAC MR

CARDIAC CT PROJECTS

Calcium screening (CaS) for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)

Validate accuracy and reproducibility of sequential and helical image acquisition for quantitative measurements of coronary calcium in an animal model

Validate precision, bias and reproducibility of traditional and new measurements of coronary calcium in an animal model

Test interscan reproducibility of imaging protocols and methods to quantify coronary calcium in patient (3100 patients FHS, 250 GENCAC)

Test feasibility of phantom calibrated measurements in patients (100 patients Tufts)

Compare morphology, distribution of density and quantity of coronary calcium in four large patent cohorts

Create nomograms of MDCT derived calcium scores

Evaluate the predictive value of combined quantity and morphology measures of coronary calcium for cardiovascular events

CT Coronary Angiography

Develop optimal approaches for 16 slice MDCT coronary angiography (CTA)

Determine the accuracy of 16 slice MDCT CTA vs. conventional angiography

Define the role of cardiac CTA relative to catheterization

Determine the ability of CT and CTA to visualize acute coronary thrombosis

Myocardial Perfusion Measurements

Optimize techniques to assess myocardial perfusion

Determine CT perfusion in a pig stenosis model at rest and during chemical stress

Perform a prospective study for significant stenosis in patients suspected of CAD

Develop combined method for CTA and myocardial perfusion in single exam

Myocardial Function Measurements

Optimize techniques to assess wall motion and ejection fraction

Determine strategy for assessment of valve function

Characterization of Vulnerable Plaque

Determine the ability of noninvasive and invasive imaging modalities to detect and characterize vulnerable plaque as determined by histopathology

Develop approaches and tools for multi modality image registration

Develop novel analytic methods for quantification of plaque burden

Determine the ability of CT to detect vulnerable plaque in a rabbit model of atherosclerosis: establish a large animal model of vulnerable plaque

Novel Instrumentation

Develop and optimize high resolution volume CT in detection and characterizing vulnerable plaque in animals and patients