Health

New Dual Source CT Scan to Save Serious Heart Attack Patients From Dying!

by Swan | January 19, 2008 at 10:34 am

1658 views | 1 Recommendation | 2 comments

It can generate amazing picturews and actually freeze images of a beating heart. MUSC launches the worlds first dual source CT scanner."

I've had several CT scans over the years and believe me, you can read the entire Bible in there before you're finished. Now however, there is yet another incredible technological breakthrough in the machine itself.

Now, with the dual source CT scanner, you won't even have the time to read an advertisement - as only 10 seconds is required to obtain incredibly detailed and accurate images. This is a critical advancement in medical technology as heart conditions abound these days with our fast and stressful lifestyles.

People die every day because a heart problem is not diagnosed soon enough to get the patient into the operating room. However, in 10 seconds with the new scanner, an image can identify life-threatening blockages, blood clots, blockages and other heart problems.

And just take a look at the quality of the images! (right.) They are positively amazing!

The company responsible for producing the incredible machine is Siemans and they've called their brand new creation, the SOMATOM Definition™.

The way CT scans used to work, is that while you're lying prone (desperately trying to keep still as instructed,) the machine moves your body through the CT tunnel very slowly so that a slice-image of your body can be taken at a time. Reducing the time from around 20-30 minutes to 10 seconds is just short of unbelievable.

Imagine if you will a camera with a much faster shutter speed that copes better with a beating heart. Dr. Joseph Schoepf explains:

"In the heart, that shutter speed, that temper resolution is crucial for capturing clear images of that fast moving organ, particularly for those small and winding vessels that supply the heart muscle."

As if this weren't enough wonderful news about the machine, it's also able to scan a heart, regardless of it's heart rate, no Beta blockers required. The resolution is a heart rate independent temporal resolution of 83ms.

Cedars-Sinai are now using the machine, where Dr. Daniel berman, M.D., reports:

"The X-ray tubes are oriented at 90 degrees to one another, allowing us to obtain the 180 degrees of information required for tomography in half the time of a standard CT. Images are obtained in a mere 83 milliseconds, allowing us to capture three-dimensional pictures of a beating heart with clarity. Our early experience suggests that with the dual source scanner accurate coronary CT angiograms can be obtained even in the presence of atrial fibrillation."

My father died of a massive heart attack just 2 years ago. If he'd had the benefit of a dual source CT scanner, he may have lived.

Sources:

Siemens

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Image Sources:

Siemens

Medical Staff Pulse

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Michael Hartmann (not verified)

at 16:27 on April 7th, 2009

I had an 80% blocked Cx artery that was detected without the usual symptoms, I was lucky at 52. However, short of another heart catherization procedure, I will not know if the stent implanted is staying open until symptoms arise. This is not appealing to me. Will this technology allow Cardiologists to see blood flow through the stented area?

angioplasty (not verified)

at 10:02 on June 25th, 2009

After suffering from a near fatal heart attack, the early we can detect these conditions the better. My doctor performed an angioplasty that had me feeling much better, but I wish we had tested and listened to my body before it came to that.