GALVESTON, Texas - The pulsating, three-dimensional picture looks like a computer-generated image of what a beating heart might look like. And that's exactly what it is.
The picture is created by a 3-D imaging device being used by doctors at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston that is a portable, powerful diagnostic tool that helps doctors more quickly and more accurately pinpoint a problem.
Dr. Masood Ahmad holds a probe that helps produce 3-D images of the heart.
Dr. Masood Ahmad, medical director of UTMB's echocardiography laboratory and professor of medicine in the division of cardiology, said the crisp, high resolution, real-time images instill a higher level of confidence in doctors that results in patients receiving better care.
The image is made possible with a new transducer that works with the Phillips' iE33 Echocardiography System. The Live TEE X7-2t transducer is in use in only a handful of medical centers.
The technology in use at most hospitals uses ultrasound to build a two-dimensional image, Ahmad said.
"But now, with this new technology, we have unique new views that we could only imagine previously," Ahmad said. Using a probe to generate the image, doctors can view a patient's heart, in 3-D, from numerous angles. Doctors can also digitally manipulate a portion of the image so that they can look right into a specific chamber.
"What we can do with this device is electronically dissect the heart, take this (top) chamber off and look at the heart. So it's like going into the operating room," Ahmad said. "You can see it as a whole, you can see it structure by structure and it's all real-time. With 3-D, it's much easier for someone to see what the problem is."
To get the realistic image of a patient's heart, a flexible probe is inserted into a patient's esophagus, directly behind the heart. The tip of the probe has an ultrasound crystal that has thousands of tiny chips that are electronically stimulated to create an array of ultrasound that then is rotated to create a 3-D image.
The image can be manipulated so that it can be viewed from above, much as a heart surgeon would see once an operation has started. In fact, the new medical tool provides a surgeon the perspective from which he or she will be performing a procedure.
"So we get to see the heart in much greater detail, in greater clarity and also the views are more like real anatomy," Ahmad said. He added that the new probe already has helped UTMB physicians to identify precisely a problem such as mitral valve prolapse where a valve doesn't work properly.
Surgeons, he said, are able to precisely determine a problem and prepare for surgery well in advance.
"Given the surface view from above, we can precisely localize what segments of the valve are prolapsing and that should help repair techniques," Ahmad said.
Dr. Ken Fujise, director of the Division of Cardiology, said, "The 3-D cardiac echo system made possible at UTMB by Dr. Ahmad's leadership is an outstanding tool to diagnose many common cardiac abnormalities, such as mitral valve prolapse. I want to congratulate Dr. Ahmad and his staff who worked hard to make this happen."
And Dr. Randall J. Urban, chairman of the department of internal medicine, said, "This significant clinical advancement by Dr. Ahmad epitomizes UTMB's continuing excellence in patient care."