An article submitted by Dr. Michael Turner MD, FACC, FSCCT, preventive cardiology specialist with Cardiovascular Specialists in Lake Charles was published last month in the medical journal Echocardiography.
The article, "High Risk Plaque with Near Normal Coronary Angiograms," appeared in the new "CT Rounds" section of the journal. Dr. Turner has extensive experience in the evaluation of emergency room patients with complaints of chest pain. In the article, he details the identification of a subgroup of patients who may be at risk for future cardiac events that may not have been discovered without the results of the Cardiac CT Angiogram (CCTA) during their emergency room evaluation. This finding allows initiation of preventive treatment in these individuals. The CCTA evaluation allows the cardiologist to see troublesome plaque in the wall of the heart artery not readily visible with conventional invasive coronary angiography.
Dr. Turner is the director of Cardiac CT at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital (CSPH). He has been instrumental in developing a Cardiac CT triage program for the emergency room at CSPH utilizing the new 128-slice Siemens CT scanner located next to the emergency room. Dr. Turner is also the Director of Cardiac CT for the Imperial Health Imaging Center and is co-editor of the “CT Rounds” section of Echocardiography.