In this , discuss the diagnostic value of less invasive imaging modalities - Assignment Example

Atherosclerosis is the chief causes of coronary artery diseases (CAD) which causes changes in structure as well functionality of blood vessels. It is the process in which, progressive dumping of cholesterol and other fatty materials across the arterial wall occurs. These dumping results in a contriction of the lumen i.e stenosis, which restricts blood flow. Further, spasm, birth defect, lupus, arteritis, blood clogging are few other causes apart from atherosclerosis. Ten years ago, CAD is thought to be a disorder of men.

Generally, CAD occurs a decade earlier in men than women, up to the time of menopause, because a high level of estrogen protects women from CAD. Anyhow, after menopause, it happens more frequently in women in comparability to men. It is noticed that ratio of women suffering from CAD is higher than men in the age group of or beyond 75. CAD is assumed to be the leading lifer taker in developed countries. Studies imply about 5-9% of people aged 20+ are suffering through CAD. The death rate rises with age, and it is more common in males in comparison to females, but the death rates for men decrease sharply after age of 55 and finally after aged 75.

The death rate of women is higher than men, who are of the same age.  It is estimated that +16 million Americans are suffering through CAD and 8 million of them had a myocardial infarction (increased 1 Million per annum). Framingham trial predicts approximately 50% & 30% of males and females respectively in the age 40+ population are suffering through CAD (Helen H, and Munther K). The most convoluted part of CAD lies in its undetection, mostly CAD remains undetected until the moment of myocardial infarction or even death.

It is an alarming situation for Biomedical Scientists to develop a mean to discover CAD as soon as possible to get the best result and prevent diseases. Early detection of CAD allows a physician to reduce the potential risk factor associated with CAD. There are several methods by which CAD can be diagnosed including an echocardiogram, electrocardiogram, but imaging method like multislice CT angiography, electron-beam computed tomography, nuclear scan, and magnetic resonance angiography, etc, is assumed to be the most effective method for CAD diagnosis.

Imaging of CAD is the demand of 21st centuries due to the uninterrupted activity of Heart & acuteness of CAD. Over the last decade, multislice CT Angiography (MSCTA) has been recognised as the most precious & productive method of CAD diagnoses because of lightning technical promotion & enhanced precision (Sun Z, 2010). It has exhibited an immense potential in early identification of CAD because of improved spatial and temporal resolution.  MSCTA showed enormous technical growth from the early generation of 4-slice CT scanners to subsequent models such as 16-, 64-, dual-source, 256- and 320-slice CT.

Retrospective ECG gated method was employed to show the feasibleness of MSCTA with 4-slice. It displayed mild accuracy with sensitivity & specificity of 78% and 93%, respectively.