Arineta Spotlight Duo Imaging
My Heart Vision features the Arineta Spotlight Duo
The world’s first dedicated Cardiothoracic CT Scanner designed to be part of a cardiologist’s practice.
It was designed and purpose built in Israel by engineers involved in the early development of multi-slice CT. It uses two overlapping x-ray beams, a very fast gantry rotation speed and a wide detector equivalent to 560 slices. This provides high resolution, motion free images with radiation exposure far less than scanners currently available in the San Fernando Valley area for outpatient imaging.
While the focus of cardiac CT is the coronary arteries, we also perform CT angiography of the pulmonary arteries, the aorta, the carotid arteries and the aortic valve before and after TAVR. As well, evaluation of Watchman device implants may obviate the need for routine post-implant transesophageal echocardiography in many patients.
The risk related to radiation exposure risk is measured in millisieverts (mSv), which is derived from the known dose that the x-ray tube generates. Background annual exposure to the average person from cosmic radiation is about 3 mSv. Most outpatient imaging centers deliver up to 15-20 mSv. The Arienta Spotlight Duo can do a CT coronary angiogram at an exposure as low as 1 mSv. There is nothing like it in the area for outpatients seeking evaluation of whether cardiovascular disease is the cause of their symptoms.
Cardiac CT provides an anatomic assessment. We know from work in the cardiac cath lab that intermediate stenoses may or may not cause blood flow reduction. To optimize and complete the CT coronary imaging anatomic assessment, we contract with Heartflow, Inc who provide physiologic analysis of the images acquired by CT and submitted electronically over a secure internet connection. This allows us to determine whether intermediate severity plaque buildup is causing a flow disturbance.
Our center formally collaborates with Dr Matthew Budoff, a cardiac CT pioneer at the Lundquist Institute on the campus of Harbor General-UCLA. We are a designated Imaging Affiliate of the Lundquist Institute. This collaboration ensures that the highest level of quality is provided to our patients, referring doctors and health plans.