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Newest CT Imaging is Very HiP

Writer's picture: Triple HelixTriple Helix

Image Credit: [1]


Written by Pratham Rao ‘27

Edited by Yumiko Imai ‘26


What is Cardiac Imaging?

According to the Cleveland Clinic, “cardiac imaging includes several tests that take pictures of your heart and surrounding structures. Healthcare providers use the tests to diagnose and manage heart conditions” [2].

 

Cardiac imaging has dominated cardiology clinical practice since its discovery in the 1970s and has only become substantially more accurate throughout the decades.

 

Recently, there has been a new type of cardiac imaging called Hierarchical Phase Contrast Tomography, or HiP-CT for short. This new type of cardiac imaging is better than current standard-of-care imaging and has many future applications of Hip-CT within cardiology and other medical specialties.

 

HiP-CT is a new X-ray imaging technique that achieves a 3D view of the heart that can depict detailed structural features across length scales. It uses synchrotron sources, which are electromagnetic radiation usually produced by storage rings, along with high energy and better

X-ray brilliance (measures the intensity of an X-ray beam), to give micron-resolution imaging of organs [1]. In short, this imaging technique allows for better visualization of the heart (or something along these lines.

 

A study conducted by Joseph Brunet and company used two adult donor hearts – one from a 63-year-old white male with cardiac disease and another from an 87-year-old white female with multiple cardiovascular pathologies – in Hip-CT imaging. They found that Hip-CT achieved resolutions ranging from gross to microscopic to cellular (2-3 micrometers in size), showing the potential precision that HiP-CT can achieve [3]. With these promising results, more studies need to be conducted in the actual clinical setting to see if HiP-CT imaging has positive effects on diagnosis.

 

Other common types of imaging that cardiologists use for diagnosing are Echocardiograms, Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs), and Cardiac Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans).

 

Echocardiograms are graphic outlines of the heart’s movement. During imaging, an ultrasound hand-held wand is placed on a person’s chest to take pictures of their heart valves and chambers [4]. Echocardiograms allow physicians to see details such as the heart chamber size, blood vessel structures, and muscle wall thickness [5].

 

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging, more simply known as MRI, uses magnetic fields and radio waves generated by a computer to create 3D images of organs in the body that can be viewed from different angles. MRIs specifically for the heart and blood vessels can monitor the thickness of heart walls, anatomical issues with the aorta, size of the heart chambers, blockage in blood vessels, and damage to the heart from heart attacks [6].

 

Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans) use radioactive drugs called tracers to show normal and abnormal metabolic activity. PET scans can often detect abnormal metabolic activity before other imaging techniques. Specifically for heart disease, PET scans can uncover areas in the heart with low blood flow, and this in particular can help the physician decide the type of surgery needed [7].

 

With all these existing imaging techniques, Hip-CT stands out in its promising ability to decouple field of view and resolution. This would allow imaging to occur anywhere in the body at the micron resolution level, reaching a resolution of 25 microns – around ten times the resolution of a medical CT scanner. After reaching this resolution, physicians can select certain areas and zoom in, resulting in a local micron resolution that is 100 times the resolution of a medical CT scanner [1].

 

Studies have demonstrated that Hip-CT could play a significant role in imaging for anatomical areas like the heart and brain. However, it still has a long way to go before being used for daily diagnostic imaging. New technologies usually cost a fortune to implement into medical practice, so hospitals and private practices would likely need to see additional studies and cases that prove Hip-CT is worth implementing into their facilities. Furthermore, additional factors such as training and logistical concerns might delay the timeline for Hip-CT’s implementation in general practice. Nevertheless, Hip-CT seems like a noticeable step forward in how precisely we can look at our organs, allowing physicians to diagnose more accurately and prevent mishaps in people’s lives.

 

References

1. HiP-CT [Internet]. HiP-CT. [cited 2022 Jun 7]. Available from: https://mecheng.ucl.ac.uk/hip-ct/ 

2. Cleveland Clinic. Cardiac Imaging: Types, Uses and Procedure Details [Internet]. Cleveland Clinic. 2022. Available from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/16836-cardiac-imaging 

3. Udelson JE. TESTING OUR TESTS: THE EVOLUTION OF EVIDENCE FOR CARDIAC IMAGING. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2024 Oct 9];131:25–32. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7358478/ 

4. Cleveland Clinic. Echocardiogram: Procedure, preparation & duration [Internet]. Cleveland Clinic. 2022. Available from: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/16947-echocardiogram 

5. What an Echocardiogram Can Reveal About Your Heart: Woodlands Heart and Vascular Institute: Cardiologists [Internet]. www.woodlandsheartinstitute.com. Available from: https://www.woodlandsheartinstitute.com/blog/what-an-echocardiogram-can-reveal-about-your-heart 

6. Mayo Clinic. MRI [Internet]. Mayoclinic.org. 2023. Available from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/mri/about/pac-20384768 

7. Mayo Clinic. Positron emission tomography scan [Internet]. Mayoclinic.org. 2019. Available from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/pet-scan/about/pac-20385078 

 

 

 

 

 


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The Triple Helix is Brown University's in-print and online science journal dedicated to reporting scientific and research-based stories to the Brown community and general public.

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