New ultrasound technology called vector flow imaging significantly improve methods for detecting and diagnosing congenital heart disease in babies and small kids.

‘New ultrasound technology called vector flow imaging can precisely detect abnormal flow and detailed cardiac anomalies in babies and kids with congenital heart disease.’
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"Vector flow imaging technology is not yet possible in adults, but we have demonstrated that it is feasible in pediatric patients," said Morten Jensen, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the U of A. "Our group demonstrated that this commercially available technology can be used as a bedside imaging method, providing advanced detail of blood flow patterns within cardiac chambers, across valves and in the great arteries."Read More..





Jensen performed the study with a multidisciplinary team, including Dr. Hanna Jensen, clinical assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the U of A; Dr. Thomas Collins, clinical associate professor of pediatric cardiology at Stanford University School of Medicine; and researchers at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Roughly 1 percent of all babies are born with some type of congenital heart defect. Fortunately, the majority of these defects will never have any significant impact as the child grows into adulthood and old age. Pediatric cardiologists detect and diagnose congenital heart disease through multiple processes, including echocardiography. This imaging method is based on ultrasound and assesses the overall health of the heart, including valves and muscle contraction.
Although ultrasound provides essential information about cardiac valve function in babies and small children, it has critical limitations. It cannot accurately obtain details of blood flow within the heart. This is due primarily to the inability to align the ultrasound beam with blood-flow direction.
Using a BK5000 Ultrasound machine with built-in vector flow imaging, the researchers performed successful tests on two pigs, one with normal cardiac anatomy and one with congenital heart disease due to a narrow pulmonary valve and a hole within the heart. The researchers then compared the vector flow images to direct examination of the pigs' hearts.
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All procedures, both animal and human, were performed at Arkansas Children's Hospital with assistance from Dr. Elijah Bolin, a pediatric cardiologist at UAMS.
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"This technology will increase our ability to provide the best possible bedside diagnosis and greatly enhances our understanding of what is happening in hearts with complex abnormalities," Stanford's Collins said.
The researchers will perform additional studies to quantify images further using this recently developed technology.
Source-Eurekalert