"This technology will need to undergo further evaluation, but it could dramatically alter the way we currently treat patients with suspected coronary disease and chest pain," said Eric J. Russell, MD, Chairman of Radiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
"By providing a non-invasive study that can quickly distinguish blocked from normal coronary arteries, we can determine who is and is not at high risk of having a heart attack. This can reduce the time a patient must spend in the emergency department, or eliminate the need for hospitalization, if the exam is normal," adds Charles Davidson, MD, chief, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The scanner will also be used for other important applications, such as identifying narrowed brain arteries that put patients at risk of having a stroke, and for evaluating blood flow in other organs such as the liver and kidney. Developing specific clinical protocols for scanning patients with certain kinds of symptoms will be a continuing process, and extending the use of cardiac CT is a collaborative effort between the Section of Cardiovascular Radiology led by James Carr, MD, and the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine spearheaded by Dr. Davidson.
The new scanner installed at Northwestern Memorial Hospital is the SOMATOM Sensation 64, manufactured by Siemens Medical Sol
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Contact: Patty Keiler
pkeiler@nmh.org
312-926-5900
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
16-Jun-2005