Combined anatomical and functional imaging using coronary CT angiography and myocardial perfusion SPECT in symptomatic adults with abnormal origin of a coronary artery.

There has been a lack of standardized workup guidelines for patients with congenital abnormal origin of a coronary artery from the opposite sinus (ACAOS). We aimed to evaluate the use of cardiac hybrid imaging using multi-detector row CT (MDCT) for coronary CT angiography (Coronary CTA) and stress-rest myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) for comprehensive diagnosis of symptomatic adult patients with ACAOS. Seventeen symptomatic patients (12 men; 54 ± 13 years) presenting with ACAOS underwent coronary CTA and MPS. Imaging data were analyzed by conventional means, and with additional use of 3D image fusion to allocate stress induced perfusion defects (PD) to their supplying coronary arteries. An anomalous RCA arose from the left anterior sinus in eight patients, an abnormal origin from the right sinus was detected in nine patients (5 left coronary arteries, LCA and 4 LCx). Five of the 17 patients (29%) demonstrated a reversible PD in MPS. There was no correlation between the anatomical variants of ACAOS and the presence of myocardial ischemia. Image fusion enabled the allocation of reversible PD to the anomalous vessel in three patients (two cases in the RCA and the other in the LCA territory); PD in two patients were allocated to the territory of artery giving rise to the anomalies, rather than the anomalies themselves. In a small cohort of adult symptomatic patients with ACAOS anomaly there was no relation found between the specific anatomical variant and the appearance of stress induced myocardial ischemia using cardiac hybrid imaging.

An infrared system for determining ocular position.

Bioengineering research in the Electronics Division of the Denver Research Institute has centered around the development of an ocular controlled communications device for the severely handicapped. The means for accurate determination of eye position for use in communication/control applications have been investigated by various groups for at least ten years. A highly satisfactory device for eye tracking has been developed in our laboratories and is currently undergoing clinical evaluation as part of a communications system. An infrared LED is mounted on the nose pad of an ordinary pair of eyeglass frames. This LED floods the cornea with light after reflection from the inside surface of an unground eyeglass lens in the frames. The cornea acts as a convex mirror and reflects the light (via the inside surface of the eyeglass (lens) into an image transducer mounted on the bow of the frames. The image transducer is a 32 x 32 cell (1k) dynamic RAM. Utilizing TTL scanning circuitry, the position of the eye can be determined from the address of the illuminated cell of the RAM.