New cath lab X-ray system to deliver sharper images
What could turn a seven-hour surgery into a seven-minute procedure? It's called the Allura Xper FD20, and the new digital imaging X-ray system at Provena Mercy Medical Center makes vascular procedures quicker and safer.
On Oct. 28, Provena Mercy unveiled the state-of-the-art machines to gasps and applause from hospital staff. And Marmion's Father Mario Pedi blessed the X-ray equipment made by Philips.
(Terence Guider-Shaw/Sun-Times Media)
"It is the newest technology in this field," said Lowell Carpenter, one of Provena Mercy's interventional cardiologists.
Carpenter said the machines produce sharper and higher quality images and use a lower level of radiation, which means less exposure for the patients and the staff.
The new equipment is part of the new catheterization laboratory, which occupies two rooms at the hospital and costs around $2 million. The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley gave a $50,000 grant to partially fund the lab. The Provena Mercy Medical Center Foundation provided additional funding.
Catheterization is the process of inserting a catheter, or flexible tube, into an artery or vein in an arm or leg to diagnose or treat cardiovascular problems.
The new lab will serve hundreds of patients each year and allow doctors to view crisper, better images, Director Deb Potempa said. "There are things they could see now that they couldn't see before," she said in a video introduction.
The imaging process requires fewer photos that a doctor needs to take by utilizing 3-D road mapping. Instead of several photos taken to detect vascular issues (think arteries and veins), just one is snapped and can be rotated to provide a 3-D image on a flat panel. As a result, there is less radiation transmitted in the procedure.
Procedures such as angioplasty and stent placement are more efficient with the high-tech system. Doctors can biopsy what is needed and patients can sometimes go home an hour later. It was likened to watching a plasma television after viewing a regular TV set.
"This is a whole new generation of technology that we haven't had in the past," said Jim Witt, president and CEO of Provena Mercy. He added that usually such advanced equipment is only found at large universities, such as Mayo Clinic, and now it is here — at a community hospital.
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