Safe Health offers 3D cardio cartography

Safe Health, a city-based centre for detection and prevention of heart diseases, has commissioned a three-dimensional cardiovascular cartography (3DCCG).

Addressing a press conference on Saturday, Rajah Vijay Kumar, director and chief scientific officer of the Centre for Advanced Research and Development, said: "The 3DCCG can complement many invasive and non-invasive diagnostic procedures and is not a substitute to any of them. The 3DCCG can give information as to the possible critical region of the blood flow to the heart muscle, thus allowing a cardiologist to decide on how to proceed further on treatment."

The 3DCCG device, which costs Rs 40 lakh, collects data from the human body for 256 heart beats in two phases using surface electrodes and special transducers.

The acquired data is processed by a high speed computer to detect flow turbulence during cardiac diastolic phase (filling phase of the heart) using the vertical acceleration detector and the disease manifested changes in the cardiac physiology.

The device was developed by the Centre for Advanced Research and Development, in association with European medical research partners and universities.

The 3DCCG is at present used in 11 countries across the world and there are already 25 centres in the country with the Hyderabad centre being the latest.

The 3DCCG also helps patients who have already undergone interventions like angioplasty and bypass surgery by assessing their blood flow after six months of the procedure to ensure that there is no re-stenosis (re-block).

Apart from this, the 3DCCG can also be used to detect pulmonary edema (collection of blood in the lungs which happens before the left ventricle of the heart fails) and another lung disease called pulmonary emphysema (excess of trapped air in the lungs).

According to Kumar, the device can also be used for the assessment of cardiotoxicity in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and dose adjustment accordingly.