EXCITE-MRI - First Magnetic Imaging Device of the Heart in Israel

THE SHEBA MEDICAL CENTER IS PROUD TO INTRODUCE, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ISRAEL, EXCITE-MRI , A MAGNETIC IMAGING HEART DEVICE AND THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

The new technology, among other things, can produce a heart scan at a very fast rate to match heart activity and can reveal many things from heart defects in babies to other inherited pathologies of the heart that could not have been discovered by existing technologies.

The new device from GE that has been introduced in the last couple of months at the Imaging Institute at the Sheba Medical Center, makes it possible, for the first time, to have a heart scan of a quality unattainable in the past: "Because the heart is in constant activity," explains Professor Yacov Itzchak, Head of the Imaging Division at Sheba. "The technology that has been available until now hasn't been able to scan all of the heart's activity at the necessary speed. The new development is able to produce pictures of heart scans at the fast rate of more than 20 pictures per second (!) thereby providing shots that show the heart activity from every desired angle." 

The new system is big news especially for patients with inherited defects of the heart and of the large blood vessels. In the Western world, the device will replace cardiac catheterization for these patients - before and in follow-up after correctional surgery of the defect.

The device also facilitates better discovery and diagnosis of tumors on or near the heart, and improved diagnosis and analysis of inherited diseases affecting the heart muscle and membrane.

We need to emphasize that this is a non-invasive examination which for the most part doesn't necessitate any injections of contrast fluid and doesn't expose the patient to dangerous radiation. During the entire examination, the patient lies comfortably and can listen to music or a radio as he likes..... The rest is done by the device and the sophisticated computers.

In light of the development of the above technology by GE, the hospital has entered a new era in which the ability of detecting heart diseases was improved and the people who benefit will be the patients - in that difficult and painful diagnostic procedures will be replaced by a non-invasive and non-painful diagnosis which will be capable of determining pathologies precisely, clearly and quickly resulting in earlier and more effective treatment.