The heart of radiology
THERE is a growing need for cardiologists in the northern KZN region and it is something which should not be taken lightly.
Placing emphasis on this point, Dr Christian Stoyanov, a Specialist Radiologist said most specialist cardiologists are concentrated in the urban areas of KZN and very few have been available in more rural areas.
‘Access to these specialists is quite limited for our rural patients and the waiting list for these specialised services is long.
‘Furthermore, people need to travel a long distance to be able to have a specialised consultation.’
His sentiments were expressed following the International day of Radiology, during which Cardiac Imaging had been chosen as the main theme in order to highlight the essential role that imaging professionals play in the detection, diagnosis and management of cardiac diseases.
‘Cardiac imaging is a fastgrowing sub-specialty of diagnostic radiology that plays a huge part in the assessment and management of heart patients throughout the world.‘Cardiac radiologists – the experts in charge – supervise or perform imaging examinations, using technology such as ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), etc., and then interpret the resulting images to diagnose and monitor a wide range of diseases of the heart,’ said Stoyanov.
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa, about 225 South Africans are killed by heart disease every day and at least 80% of heart disease and strokes can be prevented.
Stoyanov said owing to the lack of easily accessible specialised cardiological services in northern KZN, the introduction of cardiovascular and heart imaging modalities at his department, based at the Life Empangeni Private Hospital, has allowed them to provide a very holistic approach in the diagnosis and management of heart disease.
‘We identified the need to bridge the gap between the missing specialised cardiac care in the northern KZN region and introduced routine cardiac ultrasound in our department more than 10 years ago.
‘It was a long learning curve, as the ultrasound assessment of the heart requires very specialised skill and knowledge and is quite time consuming.
‘Initially we invested into one specialised ultrasound machine for cardiac scanning.
‘As the need and referrals increased and the doctors started trusting our expertise, we now have three specialised cardiac machines.
‘Both radiologists in our department, Dr Carey McKenzie and I, have accumulated a lot of experience and expertise in this area.
‘We have also trained some of our radiographers to assist in the scanning of patients and we are slowly training others.
‘As you know, the correct diagnosis is critical for providing adequate treatment.
‘If I must make a comparative metaphor of everyday life, the radiologist is like a private investigator at a crime scene, having to place all the little pieces together into a critical final conclusion.
‘Combining multiple modalities in the hands of one imaging specialist has helped us a lot in providing service which is not easily available in all radiology departments.
‘This is of great assistance to our referring clinicians, who can confidently decide which patients can be treated conservatively and which patients need to be sent for additional specialised cardiological assessment.
‘Our specialised expertise in cardiac scanning provides valuable additional service to a relatively under-serviced community and allows better clinical management.
‘I personally think that we diagnose many heart conditions which would have been ‘missed’ in our rural environment and we also save our patients unnecessary long trips to the urban areas, for conditions which we can diagnose in our department,’ he said.