Dr. Daniel Karlsberg, MD at SCCT 2025

The Cardiac Wire Show captured key insights into the latest cardiac CT trends and products at this year’s SCCT 2025 in interviews with…

• Dr. Kevin Steele, MD, Circle CVI’s CMO about their new plaque analysis software.
• Mani Vembar and Paul Pfeiffer from Philips about their latest CT advancements.
• Dr. Campbell Rogers, MD, Heartflow’s CMO about DECIDE and Plaque Analysis.
• Dr. Daniel Karlsberg, MD about the exciting work going on at the CVRF of Southern California.

Cardiac Imaging

The Top Trends of SCCT 2025

The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography had its 20th annual meeting in the gorgeous city of Montreal and though it’s still intimate, the conference punches well above its weight class when it comes to innovation. Here are some of the big takeaways from SCCT 2025.

It’s About A Lot More Than Just Scanners – While all the CT industry giants were there in some capacity or another, SCCT25 proved yet again this year that its mission goes beyond the tech on the floor. From research symposiums to training courses, SCCT continues to pursue an educational path forward, with the hopes of making cardiac CT more mainstream and better understood.

The Scanner Space is Getting Crowded – Even though SCCT is more than scanner demos and models, it’s clear that this year’s CMS reimbursements have amped up the marketing efforts across a range of CT players like Arineta, United Imaging, Fujifilm, Philips, Siemens Healthineers, and GE HealthCare. Each company now has to clearly define what makes them unique to cardiac imagers.

CT Innovations Vary By Approach – In that same vein, the major CT makers are taking different approaches to distinguishing themselves, with examples like… 

• Siemens’ human-forward touches like “in-room” set up and mood lighting.
• United Imaging’s exceptional 3rd-party software integration. 
• GE HealthCare’s unique ECG-less CT option.
• Arineta’s cost/space-effective cardiac CT approach.
• And Philips’ CT Spectral Viewer that enables seamless switching between scan results.

Those CT Scanners Don’t Work Alone – Despite the presence of the imaging greats, software companies like Cleerly, Heartflow, Circle CVI, Elucid, Caristo, and Canon Medical HIT stole the show with exciting research results and new AI analysis products.

Plaque is the New Player – Several companies including Circle CVI, Elucid, and Heartflow put a heavy emphasis on their new plaque analysis offerings at this year’s conference, from quantification to characterization, the innovations mark a new venue for improved detection, prediction, and reimbursement.

The Takeaway

It’s never been a better time for cardiac CT, and this year’s SCCT showed that the applications and acceptance of the modality are rising rapidly, with education on its benefits leading the way.

Streamlining Cath Lab Hemodynamic Workflows

Is your hemodynamic solution keeping your cath lab efficient? Merge Hemo is a cath lab hemodynamic monitoring solution, providing a Best in KLAS user experience, while enhancing clinical workflows, automating data collection, and streamlining inventory management.

Siemens Healthineers ACUSON Origin Ultrasound System is Redefining CVUS

ACUSON Origin meets the demands of today’s cardiovascular care with AI-powered efficiency across adult and pediatric echo, vascular, structural heart, and EP. Streamlined workflows, intuitive walk-up usability, and advanced ergonomics empower clinicians to deliver confident, high-quality care—supporting a wide range of complex cases and clinical applications.

How Vista AI Helps Solve the Technologist Shortage

Fewer than 2% of MRI scanners are routinely used for cardiac imaging—mainly due to a shortage of trained technologists amid rising demand. Vista AI addresses this challenge by automating CMR scanning, empowering technologists of all experience levels to deliver high-quality cardiac exams consistently and efficiently.

The Wire

• Circle CVI’s SCCT News: Expanding its cardiac imaging offerings, Circle CVI announced its interventional planning expansion and a new plaque analysis software product at SCCT 2025. First, Circle expanded its Interventional Planning Suite by using AI automation to streamline workflows for a wide range of cardiovascular procedures including TAVR, TMVR, LAAC, and EVAR. Second, Circle unveiled its new cvi42|Plaque software which enables radiologists and cardiologists to perform automated real-time plaque quantification and characterization from CCTA scans.

• MI Mix-Ups Are a Problem: A recent JACC study suggests using administrative claims data for tracking acute MI is unreliable due to the potential misclassification of type 1 and type 2 MI codes. Researchers examined 700 patients and found that only 39% of T1MI-coded cases were actually T1MI, while 45% were T2MI and 10% were myocardial injury. For T2MI-coded cases, 72% were correctly classified, but 26% were myocardial injury.  As a result, researchers suggest the epidemiologic trends we’ve been using for health policy decisions might not be completely true.

• Tempus’ ECG-Low EF FDA Clearance: Tempus AI received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Tempus ECG-Low EF software, which uses AI to identify patients who may have low left ventricular ejection fraction from standard ECG recordings. The software analyzes 12-lead ECGs from patients 40 and older at risk for heart failure, detecting signs associated with LVEF of 40% or below. It’s designed as a clinical tool to help identify serious cardiovascular conditions earlier, and is Tempus’ second FDA-cleared ECG-AI platform, joining Tempus ECG-AF for AFib.

• Visceral Fat and ASCVD: While we often think of the fat we can see, visceral fat stored deep around our internal organs could play a critical role in heart and vascular health. A UK Biobank study of 37k individuals found that visceral adipose tissue (VAT), measured by MRI and DXA imaging, is associated with increased aortic stiffness and 16% higher ASCVD risk over 4.7 years follow-up. Notably, these associations were strongest in normal-weight individuals, with ASCVD rates of 5.5% for high VAT versus 2.2% for low VAT.

• EchoNext Beats Cardiologists: As part of a Nature study, researchers developed the EchoNext AI model that uses 12-lead ECG data to detect structural heart disease (SHD). The model was trained on 1.2M ECG-echo pairs and outperformed cardiologists using only ECGs in controlled evaluations while showing consistent accuracy across diverse scenarios. During its prospective clinical trial in patients without previous cardiac imaging, EchoNext successfully identified previously undiagnosed heart disease and could expand access to heart disease screening by reducing reliance on costly echocardiography.

• AI Improves ATTR-CM Detection: AI could help us detect potential ATTR-CM patients significantly sooner than traditional screenings. Researchers analyzed 1.8k patients to evaluate AI models that combine echo plus ECG for ATTR-CM and found they identified disease signals up to 3 years before diagnosis. The combined AI screening also showed 85-91% sensitivity for ruling out disease and 86-89% specificity for identifying high-risk patients.

• A New Transplant Success Score: We now may be able to better predict which heart transplant patients will have the best outcomes. A JHLT study developed the US Transplant Risk Score (US-TRS) using data from 9,000 heart transplant recipients to predict one-year post-transplant survival and included factors like age, kidney/liver function, device support, and donor characteristics. US-TRS also outperformed existing models and found that most recipients had excellent survival chances, 17% were high-risk with 78% estimated one-year survival, potentially helping avoid futile transplants.

• WONDERing about SCD: A fresh look at the CDC WONDER database uncovered some concerning increases in sudden cardiac death (SCD) rates in recent years. Researchers analyzed 280k SCD cases from 1999-2020, finding that age-adjusted mortality rates declined significantly until 2018 (annual decrease of 1.20%), then sharply reversed with a 6.93% annual increase from 2018-2020. Post-2018 increases were highest in Hispanic (13.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.3%) populations.

• OHCA Trends, Same but Different: In some more mixed news, a new JAMA study suggests out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are remaining relatively stable in the United States. The King County study examined 25k OHCAs and found that overall incidence remained stable at 81.3 per 100,000 person-years, but varied by rhythm type: shockable arrests declined while nonshockable remained constant. However, survival to discharge significantly improved from 14.7% to 18.9% which was attributed to increased bystander CPR (55.5% to 73.9%) and early defibrillation use.

• Equal Access to Eliquis: The Bristol Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance launched a direct-to-patient program for Eliquis (apixaban), mirroring the DTC push we’ve seen in cardiometabolic drugs. The program is offered through the companies’ Eliquis 360 Support platform and offers uninsured, underinsured, or self-pay patients a >40% discount from list price. Starting September 8, eligible U.S. patients with prescriptions can purchase the anticoagulant directly with shipping to all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

• AstraZeneca Invests in America: AstraZeneca announced a $50B investment in the US by 2030, expected to create tens of thousands of jobs. The investment’s centerpiece is a multi-billion dollar manufacturing facility in Virginia producing weight management and metabolic drugs, including oral GLP-1 treatments. Additional investments include R&D expansions in Maryland and Massachusetts, plus manufacturing facilities across multiple states. AstraZeneca believes this will help it reach $80B in revenue by 2030 with 50% from US operations.

Assessing CAD with Circle CVI

Did you know that Circle CVI offers a suite of cardiac CT tools for the assessment of coronary artery disease? See how Circle combines heart function segmentation, automated plaque analysis, CAC scoring, reporting, and viewing in a single dedicated Cardiac CT package.

Precision QRS Detection

QRS detection is essential for any ECG algorithm, and Monebo’s Kinetic QRS ECG Algorithm sets the standard for accuracy. Kinetic QRS accurately detects the QRS complex, no matter the amplitude, waveform, or noise levels.

The Resource Wire

• AI-Echo for Cardiac Amyloidosis: Despite advancements in cardiac imaging, cardiac amyloidosis remains significantly underrecognized and underdiagnosed. Discover how Us2.ai’s deep learning diagnostic algorithm uses echocardiography and apical 4-chamber DICOM images to detect CA.

• An All-in-One Coronary Care Solution: See how HeartFlow ONE is transforming precision heart care as the first all-in-one CCTA pathway, combining FFRCT, stenosis, and plaque analysis in a single workflow.

• Explore Vitrea Advanced Visualization: Discover Canon Medical Healthcare IT’s suite of advanced imaging workflows designed to increase efficiency in cardiovascular imaging, and facilitate the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. These cutting-edge tools support the delivery of faster, more accurate care while integrating seamlessly into clinical workflow

• Addressing Coronary Artery Disease: Learn how the AGENT™ Drug-Coated Balloon provides a new treatment option for in-stent restenosis in the U.S. Rx Only. (Sponsored by Boston Scientific)

• Relieving The Burden of Post-Processing: With the advent of advanced imaging technologies like CCTA come added burdens to technologists and diagnostic imaging centers. See how PIA can relieve the burden of post-processing, saving you time while helping your bottom line.

• Cut Waste with GE HealthCare’s Inventory Management: Want to make your hospital’s inventory practices more efficient? Tune in to this webinar on how GE HealthCare’s data-driven insights can optimize inventory management and reduce cardiac procedure times by 30-45 minutes.

• Identify and Treat Cardiovascular Disease: Complex care pathways make getting patients to the next step a challenge. See how Tempus Next, an AI enabled care pathway platform, helps providers identify and reduce under treatment in cardiovascular disease by adding an intelligent layer onto their routinely generated EHR data.

The Industry Wire

1. A genetic tweak could prevent mosquitoes from transmitting malaria.
2. Researchers move closer to a universal cancer vaccine.
3. A new genetic test may be able to predict obesity in early childhood.
4. Henry Ford Health & Michigan State University launch $10M VC fund.
5. RFK Jr to remove preservative thimerosal from all US vaccines.
6. 10M people will lose insurance due to GOP policy law according to CBO.
7. CMS is taking a stab at site-neutral payment.
8. Humana refiles Medicare Advantage star ratings suit.
9. Cityblock CEO details opportunities in tax law’s Medicaid cuts.
10. Democrats warn Medicaid cuts could worsen rural hospital cybersecurity.