Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

Medical technology never, ever, never, ever ceases to amaze me!

Here is an interesting report from TheHeart.org specific to the diagnosis and surgical correction of heart valves:

Published appraisals of real-time three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) are trickling into the medical literature. One such study, appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) this week, suggests that the breakthrough technology is feasible in most patients, permits faster image acquisition, and delivers superior images of certain cardiac structures than can be obtained with either real-time transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) or reconstructed 3D TEE imaging technology.

Echocardiographers who have used the device made by Philips Medical Systems say the published papers simply CAN NOT capture their EXCITEMENT or convey the extent to which the technology will revolutionize an imaging method for surgical planning and percutaneous procedures.

Dr Roberto M Lang (University of Chicago, IL), stated that 3D-MTEE “will become, in the near future, part of the routine TEE examination.”

But other echocardiographers—a group not known for superlatives—used phrases like “unbelievable advance,” “absolutely fantastic,” and “blown away” to convey their enthusiasm, and struggled to list any shortcomings of the technology. Not only will 3D-MTEE revolutionize their day-to-day jobs, they say, it also makes the images they obtain instantly accessible to nonechocardiographers.

“You can essentially produce images, in real time, that look exactly like what you would see if you had the heart in front of you,” Dr Linda Gillam (Columbia University, New York) told heartwire. “It’s a display that surgeons, or anyone else with any knowledge of the structure and function of the heart, can immediately relate to.”

Click here to see 3D-MTEE images generated by the new Philips device for the mitral valve, the aortic valve and the tricuspid valve. Needless to say, it is fascinating to see an actual valve in three dimensions versus the 3D heart valve model I posted here a few weeks ago.

Keep on tickin!

Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 5:29 am and is filed under Medical Advances. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print This Post | EMail This Post.