Super scanner slashes times

Ascot's new scanner has pleased docotrs and patients. Picture / Brett Phibbs.

An examination of the state of Ron Batty's heart and its arteries used to keep him in hospital much of the day.

It would typically involve an angiogram, where a thin flexible tube is threaded into an artery in the groin or forearm and advanced through the arterial system into the heart, where x-ray images are taken.

The procedure does not take long, but would require the 64-year-old to stay and recuperate from the invasive procedure for between four and six hours.

Yesterday it took 10 minutes to look at his heart, and Mr Batty could walk out of Ascot Hospital that very morning.

All this was made possible with a 64-slice CT scanner, the most advanced of its kind in the world.

The $1.5 million machine builds a detailed picture of the heart, allowing medical specialists to examine the organ as if they were actually inside the body.

The machine takes multiple images of the heart, which is assembled into a three-dimensional picture at a higher resolution than previously feasible. The scan itself, a relatively quick and painless affair, takes about 10 seconds.

"It was a bit of an anti-climax really. I've always said that I would rather have an angiogram than go to the dentist. But this is just so simple," said Mr Batty.

And he would know. He's had four angiograms since a heart attack in 1996.

The quick procedure showed the state of his arteries down to the finest detail, including the stent he received in 2000.

It's no wonder the technology has Ascot cardiologist Dr Andrew Maslowski excited.

It is technology that could potentially change how coronary disease can be treated, he said.

As it offers better resolution to conventional 16-slice scanners, the state of a patient's arteries can be assessed with more certainty and heart problems caught early.

At the moment, however, the CT scanner is being used as a less invasive alternative to an angiogram.

The principal radiologist at Ascot Radiology, Dr David Rogers, said this technology holds tremendous potential in other areas such as orthopaedics.

With conventional 16-slice CT scanners, patients have to hold their breath for 22 seconds while a scan is taking place. But with the 64-slice, that time is reduced to only eight seconds. Since it also acquires more data, it can edit out information such as irregular heartbeats, and is more accurate with patients who are larger. Patients also need not spend the day in hospital.

"It's the style of medicine that we'd dreamed about," said Dr Rogers.