HD Body Scanner Spots Heart Problems Early

A new high-definition body scanner is giving doctors the clearest ever view inside the human body – helping them spot problems that could cause heart attacks.

The HD body scanner, manufactured by GE Healthcare, generates pictures of diseased arteries in the heart that are twice as clear as older machines.

It means doctors at Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital can identify problems at an early stage, long before patients suffer a heart attack or even develop any symptoms.

Professor of Radiology Carl Roobottom told Sky News: “When we started doing the heart research in 2002, we used to struggle to see the blood vessels, let alone see the narrowings within them.

“Now, we have a technique that can see to within a fraction of a millimetre.”

In just five seconds, the scanner takes 220 X-rays, each of them a cross-section of the heart.

Computers then turn the raw snapshots into a 3D image. (more…)

PITTSBURGH —

A device that has been used to keep former Vice President Dick Cheney’s heart functioning is now being used on patients in Pittsburgh.The device is being used on patients like Cheney, who have severe congestive heart failure, but are not candidates for transplants.At UPMC’s Artificial Heart Institute, it’s being referred to as a destination device, the destination being life.”What it does is take blood from the left ventricle — …… (more…)