[Benefits and drawbacks of CT scan as a triple rule-out exam in acute chest pain to exclude acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism and aortic dissection]. / Le scanner thoracique injecté « triple-rule-out ¼ a-t-il un intérêt dans le bilan des douleurs thoraciques aiguës pour éliminer le syndrome coronaire aigu, l'embolie pulmonaire et la dissection aortique ?

Chest pain is one of the major causes for admission in the Emergency Room in most countries and one of the principal reasons for urgent consultation with a cardiologist or a general practitioner. After clinical examination and initial biological measurements, substantial patients require further explorations. CT scan allows the search for pulmonary embolism in the early stage of pulmonary arteries iodine contrast exploration. During the same exam at the systemic arterial phase, the search for aortic dissection or coronary artery disease is possible while exploring the later contrast in the aortic artery. This triple rule-out exam allows correct diagnosis in case of acute chest pain with suspected pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection and other acute aortic syndromes or acute coronary syndrome. But X-rays are substantially increased as well as iodine contrast agent quantity while exam quality is globally decreased. Artificial intelligence may play an important role in the development of this protocol.

[Heart imaging by CT-scan and MRI in cardiac tumors]. / L'imagerie en coupe dans le bilan des tumeurs intra-cardiaques.

The etiology of cardiac masses is often oncological or thrombotic, rarely inflammatory. Among heart tumors, the vast majority are metastatic. We describe the most frequent benign primary cardiac tumors and the most frequent malignant primary cardiac tumors and give information about the advantages of using a multi-modality approach for the accurate diagnosis of a cardiac mass using Computed Tomography Scanner and Magnetic Resonance Investigation.

[Cardiac imaging in infiltrative cardiomyopathies. What cardiovascular imaging modalities to propose in hypertrophic cardiomyopathies ?] / Rôle de l'imagerie cardiaque dans les cardiomyopathies infiltratives: Quels examens d'imagerie demander devant une hypertrophie ventriculaire gauche ?

Infiltrative cardiomyopathies are abnormal accumulations or depositions of different substances in cardiac tissue leading to its dysfunction, first diastolic, then systolic. The different infiltrative cardiomyopathies are amyloidosis (both light chain amyloidosis and transthyretin amyloidosis variants), lysosomal and glycogen storage disorders (Fabry-Anderson disease), and iron overload (hemochromatosis and thalassemia associated with blood transfusions), as well as inflammatory diseases such as sarcoidosis. We also evoke hypereosinophilic syndrome associated with endomyocardial fibrosis. Echocardiography is the first essential step after interrogatory and clinical examination and may help the cardiologist as a screening tool. Cardiac MRI is the second fundamental step towards the diagnosis especially due to the late gadolinium enhancement and to the T1-mapping. Cardiac amyloidosis diagnosis also requires the use of nuclear imaging. Cardiac CT-Scan may be useful for estimating the amyloid load, identify potential cardiac thrombus and rule out associated coronaropathy.

Is multislice computed tomography of value for the imaging of myocardial infarction?

Evaluation of: Mahnken A, Koos R, Katoh M et al.: Assessment of myocardial viability in reperfused acute myocardial infarction using 16-slice computed tomography in comparison with magnetic resonance imaging. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 12, 2042-2047 (2005). Myocardial contrast-enhanced (CE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is a relatively new and well-validated technique for imaging both cell damage and scar resulting from myocardial infarction. Multislice (16-slice) x-ray computed tomography (MSCT) has recently been suggested as a means for imaging acute myocardial infarction. Both CMR and MSCT are becoming increasingly available, are less invasive than catheter-based techniques and have high spatial three-dimensional resolution, allowing interrogation and sizing of acute myocardial infarction. The cell damage in acute myocardial infarction may be distinguished from normal myocardium by either technique. But while both CMR and MSCT show agreement for infarct localization and size determination, MSCT exposes the patient to substantial ionizing radiation and to possible kidney damage associated with the necessary administration of radio-opaque, iodinated, contrast medium. Furthermore MSCT does not demonstrate the presence of pathological consequences of myocardial infarction, myocardial scarring. These points must be considered when choosing the most appropriate approach for the imaging of acute and/or chronic myocardial infarction.

Preprocedural creatinine clearance and long term survivalafter successful coronary stenting.

AIM: The clinical outcome of patients with severe renal dysfunction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is poor. However little is known concerning the impact of mild renal insufficiency on long-term clinical outcomes after successful coronary stenting. The present prospective observational study was designed to evaluate long-term clinical outcomes in relation to renal insufficiency after successful coronary stenting. METHODS AND RESULTS: A consecutive series of 1454 patients were enrolled between January 4th 1997 and January 4th 1999 Demographic and clinical characteristics and long term clinical outcome were compared for patients with normal creatinine clearance (>60 ml/mn), mild renal dysfunction (creatinine clearance rates 30-60 ml/mn) and severe renal dysfunction (creatinine clearance rates <30 ml/mn). Patients with moderate or severe renal dysfunction were older and with more severe coronary artery disease. Beyond conventional risk factors like age (RR = 1.72 [1.10-2.68] 95% CI ; p<0.018), or low left ventricular ejection fraction (RR = 2.60 [1.72-3.94] 95% CI ; p<0.001), severe (creatinine clearance rates < 30 ml/min) and mild (creatinine clearance 30-60 ml/min) renal dysfunction were also identified as strong independent predictors of death after successful coronary stenting (RR = 4.91 [2.63-9.15] 95% CI, p<0.001 and RR = 1.57 [1.03-2.40] 95% CI, p<0.034, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with successful coronary stenting, preprocedural creatinine clearance remains an important independent predictor of long term death. These data reinforce the importance of widespread application of prevention strategies especially in patients with coronary artery disease complicated by renal dysfunction.