by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | March 20, 2017
From the March 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“If [the patient has] risk factors and that is combined with the genetic aspects of cardiac disease, they are going to be prime candidates for some of that early testing with cardiac MR or CT,” says Watson.
If a patient comes into the hospital with chest pain, lab work and EKGs are done and then an echocardiogram is usually the next step. An echocardiogram shows portions of the aorta and the clinician can piece them together.
“For a patient to get to the point where they have a cardiac MR, there may be areas of the echocardiogram that highlighted something that the MR would show better, like in the case of ruling out an aortic aneurysm,” says Sabrina Newell, clinical analyst at MD Buyline.
Cardiac MR technology has greatly improved in recent years with the University Hospital Lausanne in Switzerland developing a new technique last year.
The high frequency percussive ventilation technique involves the patient putting a mask over their mouth that’s connected to a ventilator that delivers small volumes of air. Instead of taking 10 to 15 large breaths, air is provided in 300 to 500 small puffs per minute.
Cardiac MR images are usually acquired in steps. The patient breathes in and holds it for each image, then recovers before the process is repeated. With this new technique, physicians can generate higher quality images with fewer artifacts in less time.
GE Healthcare introduced its ViosWorks cardiac MR software at the Radiological Society of North America annual meeting. It can perform in 10 to 15 minutes what typically takes 45 minutes to an hour.
ViosWorks can be used on GE’s existing MR systems and it shows blood flow in the heart in seven dimensions, including three in space, one in time and three in velocity direction.
Most hospitals have MR or CT technology that is functionally capable of performing heart exams, according to Watson. He believes more hospitals will invest in the cardiac software and workstation technology as health care payors begin to recognize their use for preventive care.
