Heart disease patients could soon have gentler treatment options, thanks to a new 3D computer technology that shows how blood flows in the heart’s arteries.
This exciting discovery was revealed at a meeting of heart experts in Manchester, United Kingdom.
The Power of VIRTUHeart
The research team put the technology, known as VIRTUHeart, to the test with doctors looking after heart attack patients. The results were surprising.
If the doctors had used this new technology, they would have changed the treatment for more than 1 in 5 patients.
In many cases, the patients wouldn’t have needed a more serious procedure, like getting a small tube called a stent put into their heart.
This technology gives doctors a better look at a patient’s arteries. It could help more heart patients get the treatment that’s best for them.
It could also free up doctors’ time and help with the high demand for heart care services.
The team is now looking at how this technology could impact the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. This includes its effect on waiting lists for treatment. They hope it could be in use within three years.
A View Inside the Heart
Dr. Hazel Arfah Haley, a heart doctor at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, led the study.
She explained that by giving doctors a better view of the patient’s blood vessels, this technology could help improve how we understand and treat heart disease.
The team is also looking at whether VIRTUHeart could help people with angina, another common heart problem. They hope to ensure more patients get the right treatment the first time around.
Each year in the UK, up to 250,000 patients undergo a test called a coronary angiogram. This test lets doctors look inside the coronary arteries, the vessels that bring blood to the heart.
They check for blockages, which can lead to heart attacks. This test is one of the first for heart attack patients. It helps doctors plan how to get blood flowing to the heart again.
However, angiograms can be tricky to read when an artery is only partly blocked. This makes treatment decisions difficult, especially for patients with complex heart conditions.
Virtual Solutions for Real Problems
The VIRTUHeart technology was developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield. It uses images from a patient’s angiogram to create a computer model of their blood vessels.
This virtual model acts like another test, called a Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR), which measures how well blood is flowing in the arteries.
This test is often not used for reasons like time constraints, complexity, and doctors’ familiarity with the procedure.
With this “virtual FFR”, doctors can better understand the blockages in the arteries.
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, spoke on the importance of this technology.
He stated that each year, around 100,000 people are admitted to hospitals due to heart attacks, mostly because of blocked arteries.
Technologies like VIRTUHeart could improve treatment, reduce unnecessary procedures, and save time and money.
Study Outcomes
The study involved 208 patients admitted to the hospital with a type of heart attack where the affected artery isn’t completely blocked. These patients had their coronary arteries virtually reconstructed using VIRTUHeart.
After treatment, the researchers showed the virtual blood vessel models to the patients’ doctors. They found that using the technology would have changed the treatment for 46 patients (22%).
Of these, 21 patients who had a stent inserted could have been treated with only medication if VIRTUHeart had been used.
Overall, using VIRTUHeart to plan treatment could have reduced the number of stents by 18%.
In conclusion, the development of VIRTUHeart showcases a promising future for the treatment of heart disease.
By offering a non-invasive, highly accurate visualization of a patient’s arteries, this technology can significantly improve patient care and treatment planning.
If you care about heart failure, please read studies about diabetes drugs that could revolutionize heart failure treatment, and this drug can be a low-cost heart failure treatment
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies that exercise in middle age reversed worrisome heart failure, and results showing this drug combo can cut the risk of stroke and heart attack by half.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
