Thomas Dickerson, Christie James, and Robert Still

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the single largest payor for healthcare in the U.S., and as government moves to cut costs and improve value for the public healthcare dollar, the ripple effects are felt throughout radiology. Advocating for radiology during these times of change is a job for everyone in the field, not just radiologists.

October 8, 2017

2017 05 04 10 02 04 942 Capitol Hill2 400

Page 1 of 1

CCTA links neighborhood income to atherosclerosis

The relationship between socioeconomic disparities and imaging-defined coronary atherosclerosis on CCTA has not been fully understood.

$Study overview. (A) Volumetric segmentation of the paraspinal musculature was performed for 1,316 participants. (B) Manual segmentation was performed, the results were compared with the volumetric segmentation results, and the Dice score and the intersection over union were calculated. (C) The three-dimensional segmentations from T1 through T10 were individually extracted and combined into a single volume for analyses. (D) Muscle volume and median muscle attenuation were derived from the segmentation volumes. (E) Analyses were performed to assess the correlation of the paraspinal muscle attenuation and volume with the bone mineral density and the ability to predict vertebral fractures. NIFTI = Neuroimaging Informatics Technology Initiative, 3D = three-dimensional.$