Cardiovascular Imaging

Recent Highlights

Sanger was the first National Luminary Center of Excellence for training U.S. health care systems on building coronary computed tomography angiography programs and is one of only two such programs in the nation. In collaboration with Heartflow, we hold full-day symposia every one to two months, with attendees from throughout the U.S.

The Intersocietal Accreditation Commission has accredited our echocardiography and nuclear imaging labs. These labs are located throughout the Greater Charlotte region, bringing care to a large and growing number of patients. 

Siemens chose our cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) program to be a show site for the Teamplay digital health platform. This system enables remote monitoring and performance of CMR studies.

We launched our inaugural Sanger Imaging Fellowship in 2022. Our first CMR fellow started in March, followed by an imaging fellow who began in July.

Providing echo quality assurance review for the National Basketball Association (NBA): Sanger’s Sports Cardiology Center, along with Sanger Cardiac Imaging, have newly partnered with the NBA to provide a quality assurance review process of all echocardiograms completed during the screening of NBA and WNBA players league-wide. This includes almost 900 players. The goal is to ensure echocardiograms meet appropriate standards and protocols.

Improving cardiac imaging for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): We co-chaired the guideline recommendations for patients with HCM.

Cardiovascular Imaging Research and Clinical Trials

We continue to expand our structural heart research portfolio and are involved in multiple clinical trials utilizing cardiac CT and echo imaging.

TRISCEND: A trial of the Edwards EVOQUE tricuspid valve replacement system

SUMMIT: A study of the Tendyne mitral valve replacement system

TRILUMINATE: A study of the Abbott transcatheter clip repair system in patients with moderate or greater tricuspid regurgitation

AltaValve Early Feasibility Study: A study of the AltaValve system for transcatheter mitral valve replacement

Cephea Early Feasibility Study: A study of a novel transseptal approach to transcatheter mitral valve replacement

CLASP: A trial of the PASCAL system for transcatheter mitral edge-to-edge repair

ACURATE IDE: A study of the ACURATE valve for TAVR

Process Improvements

Sanger was an initial testing site and early adopter of Collaboration Live. This new virtual platform, developed by Philips, allows the physician to directly connect to the ultrasound machine and the sonographer performing the examination. The physician can provide real-time guidance to ensure any clinical questions are answered.

Sanger implemented a cardiac CT-first strategy for evaluating chest pain in the emergency room. This improves patient care, shortens length of stay, and reduces redundant and unnecessary testing. It also improves cath lab utilization for and reduces diagnostic catheterization by identifying patients with disease that requires intervention versus medical therapy.

We continue developing and improving our advanced cardiovascular imaging infrastructure. This includes adding two additional cardiac-capable CT scanners that expand our ability to provide exceptional care across Greater Charlotte. All of these studies are read by board-certified cardiologists using remote reading software.

Our cardiac MR program continues expanding with four cardiac-capable CMR scanners across Greater Charlotte. All studies are read remotely from our Kenilworth location by board-certified cardiologists who specialize in CMR. The remote reading technology allows physicians to interact with staff and MR scanners across the system.