Heart Podcast Current and Future Applications of Photon-Counting Computer Tomography in Cardiovascular Medicine
Aug 12, 2025
Filippo Cademartiri, a cardiovascular radiology professor from Naples, Italy, shares insights on cutting-edge photon-counting CT technology. He discusses how this innovation enhances imaging quality while reducing radiation exposure, especially in complex cases like stents and atherosclerosis. The conversation explores its effectiveness in diagnosing cardiomyopathies compared to traditional methods and highlights exciting advances like gold nanoparticles for better plaque characterization. Despite its high costs, the future for this technology in cardiovascular medicine looks promising.
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Direct Photon Detection Transforms CT
- Photon-counting CT detects individual X-ray photons and measures their energy directly without intermediate light conversion.
- This produces vastly more precise spectral data and requires complex high-speed hardware and software.
Higher Resolution With Lower Noise
- Photon-counting CT delivers much higher spatial and contrast resolution because detector elements are much smaller and electronic noise is filtered out.
- That enables reduced radiation dose while preserving image clarity and reducing blooming artifacts.
Spectral Imaging During Cardiac Motion
- Photon-counting CT produces spectral, multi-energy data during fast cardiac scans, removing prior trade-offs between speed and spectral imaging.
- This allows material-specific imaging like iodine sensitivity during routine cardiac CTs.