Imaging (2006) 18, 0
© 2006 The British Institute of Radiology
doi: 10.1259/imaging/28252890
Cardiothoracic imaging
K Pointon1 and
J Reynolds2
1 Department of Radiology, Nottingham University Hospital, City Campus, Hucknall Road, Nottingham NG5 1PB, UK, 2 Department of Radiology, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Bordesley Green East, BirminghamB9 5SS, UK
We have put together what we hope you will find an interesting set of articles for this cardiothoracic edition of Imaging.
The paired articles on emergency chest radiology (Jones and Reid, and Day and Watson) form an excellent system-based review of significant imaging findings in the traumatic and non-traumatic setting. The highly informative article on airways disease (Stone et al) describes the radiological features seen as you descend the bronchial tree, along with appropriate imaging strategies. Emphasis is placed on the pathology of the trachea, along with primary and secondary high-resolution CT changes in the lung parenchyma. Non-invasive cardiac imaging is described by modality. A significant component of nuclear medicine (Chua et al) is committed to cardiac imaging; it plays a role in diagnosis, as well as in assessing prognosis and in the monitoring of treatment. Echocardiography (Copley and Mathew) is primarily a service run by cardiologists, but it is important for radiologists to be familiar with this first-line investigative tool and to understand how developments in other modalities fit into the imaging pathway. Routine imaging is described along with micro-bubble, stress and trans-oesophageal echocardiographic techniques. Cardiac MRI (Duerden et al) has expanded significantly over the past 5 years, and is often used where echocardiography is inconclusive. MRI provides clear anatomical detail, which is of great value in the assessment of congenital heart disease. It also plays an important role in the assessment of ischaemic heart disease and other cardiomyopathies. The article on cardiac CT (Leonard et al) demonstrates the exquisite anatomical detail that can currently be achieved, and describes the imaging parameters and system needs for optimizing cardiac studies.
Cardiac imaging in any modality can be complex, but observation of chamber size and morphology of the septum at non-gated CT can give useful clinical information. Clinical interpretation of the dynamic information acquired in all modalities takes experience; a sustainable service will need input from both cardiac radiologists and imaging cardiologists.
