{"id":41083,"date":"2011-06-07T10:17:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T14:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=41083"},"modified":"2015-10-14T11:37:47","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T15:37:47","slug":"yang-cardiac-cta-phantom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/06\/yang-cardiac-cta-phantom\/","title":{"rendered":"Practice Makes Perfect \u2013 And Helps Avoid Unnecessary Exams"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Clifford Yang is the creator of a device that simulates a beating heart for use in training technologists in cardiac imaging. (Chris DeFrancesco\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CTA) is the use of CT to evaluate the coronary arteries for atherosclerotic disease, the number one cause of death in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cA technologist has one chance to do a cardiac CTA image correctly due to the radiation and intravenous contrast dose,\u201d says Yang. \u201cIf you do a cardiac CT poorly, the patient will need an unnecessary invasive coronary angiogram to revaluate the coronary arteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The radiation dose for cardiac CT is the highest of the CT exams so that\u2019s why getting the exam right the first time is so important.<\/p>\n

On-the-job training can be difficult since the Health Center may have only one or two cardiac CT patients a week. Larger hospitals that scan more patients may also have issues since they have even more doctors they need to train.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we have a model we can scan as many times as we want until the new technologist gets comfortable with it,\u201d says Yang.<\/p>\n

The first heart model Yang developed was made of clay and other materials. He took the model to the American College of Radiology\u2019s national conference where he showed it to two nationally known cardiac radiologists. Their reaction was extremely positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised at the reaction that I got. They really liked the idea a lot,\u201d says Yang. \u201cBut it was an anatomic model and one of them asked me whether I could make an electrical model that beats like a regular heart. That set me back to square one.\u201d<\/p>\n

So for the next six months Yang spent a lot of time in the basement of his house developing the current device which is a functional model of the heart.\u00a0The heart rate can be changed on the model so the technologist can adjust it and scan again. Cardiac CTA protocol modifications can also be tested on the phantom, which can\u2019t be easily done on living patients.<\/p>\n

Yang is working with UConn\u2019s\u00a0Center for Science and Technology Commercialization<\/a> which has filed a provisional patent application on the device. They have also begun contacting companies to determine if any are interested in licensing the technology.<\/p>\n

Yang is also scheduling talks about the phantom, starting with radiologists and cardiologists at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in Boston.<\/p>\n

For a lecture or demonstration of the device, please contact Dr. Clifford Yang at\u00a0cyang@uchc.edu<\/a> or 860 679 1458.<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CTA) is the use of CT to evaluate the coronary arteries for atherosclerotic disease, the number one cause of death in the U.S. \u201cA technologist has one chance to do a cardiac CTA image correctly due to the radiation and intravenous contrast dose,\u201d says Yang. \u201cIf you do a cardiac CT […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1969,1731,2231,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-41083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardiology","category-entrepreneurship","category-health-well-being","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:52:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41083"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105193,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41083\/revisions\/105193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41083"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=41083"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=41083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}