Technology enabling fewer invasive cardiac procedures benefits Glasgow children

Clinicians at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children are now able to scan patients’ hearts in just one heartbeat thanks to the installation of GE Healthcare’s Revolution* CT. The technology’s ability to freeze the heart’s motion helps to produce high quality diagnostic images, even for patients with erratic or high heart rates which may have led to poor quality images in the past. This helps reduce the need for invasive examination procedures and allows for quick and confident diagnoses of heart disease.

Over a quarter of all deaths in the UK, or about 160,000, are caused by cardiovascular disease each year, and 1 in every 180 babies born in the UK will have some form of congenital heart disease. The NHS’ Greater Glasgow & Clyde will be Europe’s first trust to install the machine in a dedicated children’s hospital, providing the continent’s first access to this detailed level of cardiac CT imaging for young children. The pioneering technology is expected to have a significant impact on paediatric clinical services.

Aileen MacLennan, Director of Diagnostics, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde noted:

The Revolution CT will replace the need for invasive cardiac diagnostics in a significant proportion of children. Thanks to its low radiation dose technology, we expect it to have an impact beyond just cardiac imaging, covering respiratory, neurosurgical and many other paediatric imaging applications.”

Of particular benefit when scanning children is the technology’s ability to reduce patient anxiety. The Revolution CT is 50% quieter than previous generation GE scanners and can also emit soft, ambient lighting during exams. It comes equipped with low dose technology that routinely helps reduce the radiation dose a patient is exposed to by up to 82%, while continuing to deliver high image quality.

Healthcare professionals will also be able to accurately scan other organs such as the whole brain in less than a second, as well as investigate tumors, bone fractures and internal bleeding.

Karl Blight, GE Healthcare’s General Manager for Northern Europe said:

We’re looking forward to building upon our partnership with Glasgow to co-create paediatric best practice guidelines that can be replicated around the world. Such close collaboration with our customers is at the core of what we do.”

*Trademark of the General Electric Company

Source: GE Healthcare