By Susan Bosch
Patients at Muskogee Regional Medical Center needing magnetic resonance imaging — an MRI — can get it done in about 10 seconds, compared to the previous machine which could drag out the procedure as much as 30 to 45 minutes.
MRMC is the second in the state to get such a $1.2 million cardiac computed tomography, or CT, scanner, said Patty Richards, CT supervisor. machine shoots as many as 64 images in one four-second rotation, Richards said.
“On a trauma patient, it is crucial you get them in and out of here and back to the emergency room,” she said.
The machine is comprised of a high-speed X-ray scanner that spins in a circle as it shoots images of a person’s vessels and body. Richards referred to the result as a road map for cardiologists, or heart specialists, in determining a particular patient’s diagnosis.
Once complete, the scans can be manipulated and viewed from any angle, meaning vessels behind the heart are as easy to see as those in the front, she said. This technology is referred to as “isovolumetric reconstruction,” she said.
The speed of the machine is critical in getting clear images as the heart and vessels pulsate, Richards said. This is still the case even though patients are given beta-blocker drugs to slow the beating of the heart, she said.
She calls the machine “smart,” describing its ability to destroy motion, which blurs the images, making them impossible to read.
This technology is patient-oriented, allowing him or her greater comfort in the process of getting a scan, looking for vessel blockages or other vessel issues, said Mark McCrosky, director of MRMC’s radiation technology department.
With previous CT scanners, patients could be scanned only from one angle, meaning someone with a face injury had to be positioned on the belly, chin on the table, face looking upward, in spite of how uncomfortable this was for the patient, Richards said. In some cases, repeated scans, requiring more repositioning, were necessary, she said.
“The resolution is true at any plane,” she said, maneuvering a photographic-looking image of a scanned heart.
Beyond capturing images of vessels, the machine also takes in surrounding territories, allowing medical professionals to look for the root cause of chest pain, which might not be a cardiac issue at all, Richards said. For example, vessels might not be blocked, with pain resulting from a tumor in the chest cavity, she said.
This type of technology is far less invasive, too. The alternative to a cardiac scan involves cutting the upper leg and running dye up through the body’s vessels, said David Eckerson, a service engineer who works on the scanners for General Electric, the manufacturer.
In some cases, patients scanned with the more traditional CT scanner had trouble with bleeding and developed infections, Dr. Gale Joslin, a staff radiologist, said.
Eckerson relayed the story of another engineer who served as a “guinea pig” for a trial run of the machine at another hospital. Technicians found a 90 percent blockage in one vessel.
“They had him on the table the next day getting a stent,” he said.
Eckerson, too, underwent the procedure. But in his case, the scan came out normal. In this circumstance, the man shouldn’t need another one for 10 years, Dr. Jim Bolene said. In the case of someone’s scan being abnormal, the patient should have another scan in five years, he said.
In the case of someone having blockages, a doctor likely will prescribe dietary and lifestyle changes, which hopefully will diminish the problems, Josllin said.
“I think it wakes people up,” he said.
Many patients do not get a scan done until late in life, but this type of scan, being both non-invasive and less expensive, allows people in their 40s to get them as a preventative diagnostic measure, Joslin said.
Those with a family history of cardiac troubles or with other factors affecting cardiac health, such as high blood pressure and diabetes or being a smoker, should consult with their doctor to determine if a scan is in order, he said.
“I’ve had one done myself,” he said.
