As the single leading cause of death in America, coronary heart disease requires the best possible imaging techniques to diagnose heart conditions and direct appropriate treatment and follow up. Given recent advances in ultrasound technology, including doppler echocardiography, stress echo, harmonic tissue imaging and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), there has been a dramatic increase in the use of ultrasound in the early diagnosis of all forms of heart disease, according to several industry experts.
Perhaps the most significant technologic advance in ultrasound, as in other imaging modalities, came with the development of digital acquisition of images.
“There has been an overall push in the technology to move from an analog form of acquiring, storing and distributing content to digital,” says Muhamed Saric, M.D., Ph.D., director of echocardiography laboratory, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, (Newark, N.J.). “All the modern equipment now acquires images in digital format.”
Please refer to the March 2001 issue for the complete story. For information on article reprints, contact Martin St. Denis
