BI-PLANE CATH LABS TECHNOLOGY: A NEWER APPROACH FOR EMERGENCY INTERVENTIONAL CARDIOLOGY
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the major reasons behind mortality and morbidity across the world. There has been a significant rise in the prevalence of CHD and cardiovascular mortality in India and in some other developing countries of South Asia. A completely blocked coronary artery will lead to a heart attack. Usually, some signs and symptoms of a heart attack include crushing pressure in the chest and pain in the shoulder area or arm, sometimes shortness of breath and sweating can also be observed. One may need a surgical procedure to treat CHD. Mostly either angioplasty or CABG is used as treatment. Angioplasty helps to improve the blood flow to the heart. In current times, with an aim to minimize radiation exposure and other possible negative impacts, surgeons across the world are preferring highend technological intervention during angioplasty. In the last few decades, Interventional Cardiology has continuously evolved, with emphasizes on specialized imaging, minimally invasive procedural methods, and medications. Coronary interventions in India rose 51% within a year, between 2014 and 2015. The rising incidence of cardiac diseases is accelerating the cath lab market in India. There are two sorts of cath labs available in the market - fixed cath labs and mobile cath labs. Fixed cath labs need to be installed in a specific area in a medical centre whereas mobile cath labs are portable and can be moved from one place to another. As the healthcare centres are growing rapidly every day, the cath lab market can see exponential growth in the coming years, and players in this field can benefit tremendously. Biplane Cathlab is a cutting-edge technology where expert neurosurgeons, cardiac surgeons, endovascular surgeons can perform different minimally invasive procedures, as a part of diagnosis and treatment in patients suffering from various neurovascular or cardiovascular disorders. Cath lab imaging technology has now evolved from analog-based image intensifiers to fully digital flat-panel technology with high resolution that leads a long way in serving healthcare to its fullest extremity. Nowadays, apart from aiding in the treatment of gastrointestinal, peripheral vascular interventions, Biplane Cathlab is also being widely adopted for performing highly complex interventional cardiovascular procedures. Biplane Cathlab is equipped with a bi-plane camera that assists the physician by acquiring high-resolution pictures of the heart simultaneously from two different axes at 30 frames per second, projecting it on the computer screen. In current times, this technology is being followed more as it provides reduced contrast volumes and radiation exposure when performing a complete coronary arterial tree visualization or ventriculography. Another advantage of Biplane Cathlab is that here most of the procedures – both diagnostic and treatment applications can be done simultaneously. Therefore, it allows patients a shorter hospital stay, and quicker recovery compared to other surgical interventions.
Advantages of Biplane cath lab over the older versions:
• Excellent resolution
• Ability to simultaneously image an area of interest in two different planes
• Significant reduction in the contrast load to patient
• Significant reduction in radiation exposure to both patient as well as the cath lab team
• Enhanced ability to undertake complex coronary and non-coronary Interventional procedures