New scans bring hope to sick babies

A CHILDREN’S hospital is to use new MRI technology that could revolutionise the care of babies with congenital heart disease.

Pioneering 4D Flow MRI software is intended to make scans safer and less intrusive for infants – reducing the time taken from up to an hour to less than 10 minutes.

Congenital heart disease is one of the most common types of birth defect and while survival rates have improved, diagnosis and imaging of newborns can be challenging.

Until now, CT imaging has been preferred to MRI, due to reduced noise and faster scan times, while MRI has necessitated breath-holding and patient sedation with the risks that brings to the very young.

But the use of CT requires X-rays and gives doctors less information to work with than MRI.

Leeds Children’s Hospital’s Congenital Heart Unit is the first in the UK to use the 4D Flow MRI from Siemens Healthineers, which provides a comprehensive, noninvasive assessment of the heart in one go, allowing medics a greater insight into which children may need surgery in the future.

The new equipment includes an MRI coil and an MRI-safe closed incubator, which cuts the noise the infant is exposed to, allowing scans to take place as the baby sleeps in a safe and comfortable environment.

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive at Heart Research UK, said: “This project will have a real effect on how capable we are of providing better care to patients, in this case often very unwell babies.”