Circulation. Cardiovascular imaging
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Circ Cardiovasc Imaging · Dec 2015
ReviewImproving Appropriateness and Quality in Cardiovascular Imaging: A Review of the Evidence.
High-quality cardiovascular imaging requires a structured process to ensure appropriate patient selection, accurate and reproducible data acquisition, and timely reporting which answers clinical questions and improves patient outcomes. Several guidelines provide frameworks to assess quality. This article reviews interventions to improve quality in cardiovascular imaging, including methods to reduce inappropriate testing, improve accuracy, reduce interobserver variability, and reduce diagnostic and reporting errors.
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Circ Cardiovasc Imaging · Dec 2015
Impaired Right, Left, or Biventricular Function and Resting Oxygen Saturation Are Associated With Mortality in Eisenmenger Syndrome: A Clinical and Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Study.
Patients with Eisenmenger syndrome (ES) have better survival, despite similar pulmonary vascular pathology, compared with other patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is useful for risk stratification in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, whereas it has not been evaluated in ES. We studied CMR together with other noninvasive measurements in ES to evaluate its potential role as a noninvasive risk stratification test. ⋯ Impaired right, left, or biventricular systolic function derived from baseline CMR and resting oxygen saturation are associated with mortality in adult patients with ES. CMR is a useful noninvasive tool, which may be incorporated in the risk stratification assessment of ES during lifelong follow-up.