GE researchers invent a 7-dimensional heart scanner
What it sees inside your chest could save you during a heart attack.
While conventional MRI scans can produce highly detailed images of our internal organs, the process can take up to 45 minutes -- not the sort of delay you want when suffering from a heart attack. However, a new scanning technology from GE promises to cut that time by up to 30 minutes and deliver near-real time videos of the heart in unprecedented detail.
Dubbed ViosWorks, this MRI software algorithm captures the hearts functions in seven (yes, seven) dimensions: the standard 3 spacial, 1 time, and 3 directional velocities. What's more, it can capture all of this information in just 10 to 15 minutes, a third of what conventional MRIs demand. With it doctors will be able to spot damaged and scarred tissue, which can impede blood flow and complicate future heart attacks, faster and more easily. These scans could also potentially be leveraged to help create highly detailed practice models for surgeons or guide non-invasive surgeries. Best of all, patients won't have to hold their breath while the MRI does its thing.
GE recently debuted ViosWorks at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. However, the technology itself is not yet commercially available.
