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Increasing data have accumulated on the role of Cardiac Computed Tomography (CCT) in infective endocarditis (IE) with high accuracy for large vegetations, perivalvular complications and for exclusion of coronary artery disease to avoid invasive angiography. CCT can further help to clarify the etiology of infective prosthetic valve dysfunction (e.g. malposition, abscess, leak, vegetation or mass). Structural interventions have increased the relevance of CCT in valvular heart disease and have amplified its use. CCT may be ideally integrated into a multimodality approach that incorporates a central role of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) with 18-FDG PET and/or cardiac magnetic resonance in individually selected cases, guided by the Heart Team. The coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in renewed attention to CCT as a safe alternative or adjunct to TEE in selected patients. This review article provides a comprehensive, contemporary review on CCT in IE to include scan optimization, characteristics of common IE findings on CCT, published data on the diagnostic accuracy of CCT, multimodality imaging comparison, limitations and future technical advancements., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Dr. Choi reports equity interest in Cleerly, Inc. Dr. Lopez-Mattei and other coauthors have no conflicts of interest to disclose related to the content of this manuscript., (Copyright © 2021 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected patient care deliver throughout the world, resulting in a greater emphasis on efficiently and safety. In this article, we discuss the experiences of several North American centers in utilizing cardiac CT during the pandemic. We also provide a case-based overview which highlights the advantages of cardiac CT in evaluating the following scenarios: (1) patients with possible myocardial injury versus myocardial infarction; (2) patients with acute chest pain; (3) patients with stable chest pain; (4) patients with possible intracardiac thrombus; (5) patients with valvular heart disease. For each scenario, we also provide an overview of various societies recommendations which have highlighted the use of cardiac CT during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that the advantages of cardiac CT that have been realized during the pandemic can help promote wider adoption of this technique and improved coverage and payment by payors., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None of the authors of this manuscript have a conflict of interest relevant to this topic., (Copyright © 2020 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Cardiovascular computed tomography (CCT) is a well-validated non-invasive imaging tool with an ever-expanding array of applications beyond the assessment of coronary artery disease. These include the evaluation of structural heart diseases, congenital heart diseases, peri-procedural electrophysiology applications, and the functional evaluation of ischemia. This breadth requires a robust and diverse training curriculum to ensure graduates of CCT training programs meet minimum competency standards for independent CCT interpretation. This statement from the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography aims to supplement existing societal training guidelines by providing a curriculum and competency framework to inform the development of a comprehensive, integrated training experience for cardiology and radiology trainees in CCT., (Crown Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The vision for the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography's social media efforts is to amplify the impact of the Journal while driving engagement, increasing journal visibility and disseminating content to new audiences globally. Serving as "the front door" to the Journal, this digital evolution represents an important step forward for a field in which advancements in hardware, image processing and clinical evidence have evolved rapidly. However, is social media the panem et circenses of cardiovascular computed tomography (CT), that of superficial appeasement, or of sine qua non; an essential ingredient to the acceleration of the Journal and of the field of cardiovascular CT? This paper aims to present the initial impact of social media within a dedicated cardiovascular CT journal., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The purpose of this review is to summarize the work published by the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (JCCT) for the year 2019, highlighting original research and new guidelines., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest CNC receives research support from and has received speaker fees from Siemens Healthineers. JAL serves as a consultant and holds stock options with Circle CVI and HeartFlow and receives research support from GE Healthcare. JKM receives funding from the Dalio Foundation, NIH, and GE Healthcare. JKM also serves on the scientific advisory board of Arineta and GE Healthcare, and has an equity interest in Cleerly., (Copyright © 2020 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The 2019 Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) was perhaps the most impactful meeting in recent memory for the field of cardiovascular CT. Beyond just being the highest attended ASM meeting in the society's history, the virtual impact of the meeting extended farther than ever before due to coordinated social media coverage and participation. As a result, the ASM reinforced the fact that the educational paradigm and audience of scientific meetings has changed. Bound through the hashtag #SCCT2019, social media allowed the research, education, networking and trends from this year's ASM to extend beyond the walls of the meeting with a record setting level of digital global reach. Using posts from Twitter as a prism of interests and response of the global cardiovascular CT community, this article presents the topics with the highest social media engagement from the 14th ASM., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Assessing coronary artery calcium (CAC) is a valuable tool for individualizing cardiac risk assessment. In CAC scanning, this technical report assesses the use of a true model-based iterative reconstruction algorithm using forward projected model-based iterative reconstruction ("FIRST") and assess whether FIRST allows for reduced radiation dose CAC scanning on 320-detector row computed tomography (320-CT). Here, 100 consecutive patients prospectively underwent reduced and standard dose scans. For the patients (59 ± 9 years, 61% male) stratified by Agatston categories 0, 1-10, 11-100, 101-400,> 400, agreement between reduced dose with FIRST versus standard dose with FBP was excellent at 81% (95% CI: 73-88%) with kappa 0.74 (95% CI: 0.64-0.85). Median radiation exposure was 75% lower for reduced (0.35 mSv) versus standard dose (1.37 mSv) scans. In conclusion, agreement was excellent for reduced dose with FIRST and standard dose with FBP in 320-detector row CT CAC imaging in well-established categories of cardiovascular risk. These methods make it possible to reduce radiation exposure by 75%., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cardiac CT, specifically coronary CT angiography (CTA), is an established technology which detects anatomically significant coronary artery disease with a high sensitivity and negative predictive value compared with invasive coronary angiography. However, the limited ability of CTA to determine the physiologic significance of intermediate coronary stenoses remains a shortcoming compared with other noninvasive methods such as single-photon emission CT, stress echocardiography, and stress cardiac magnetic resonance. Two methods have been investigated recently: (1) myocardial CT perfusion and (2) fractional flow reserve (FFR) computed from CT (FFRCT). Improving diagnostic accuracy by combining the anatomic aspects of coronary CTA with a physiologic assessment via CT perfusion or FFRCT may reduce the need for additional testing to evaluate for ischemia, reduce downstream costs and risks associated with an invasive procedure, and lead to improved patient outcomes. Given a rapidly expanding body of research in this field, this comparative review summarizes the present literature while contrasting the benefits, limitations, and future directions in myocardial CT perfusion and FFRCT imaging., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)