Heart disease has become the number one killer in the UK. The combination of a sedentary lifestyle and a rich diet has led to an increase in clogged blood vessels, heart attacks and strokes. The rate of heart disease increased so sharply between 1940 and 1967 that the World Health Organisation called it the world's most serious epidemic.
Today, the Regional Medical Physics Department (RMPD) plays a major role in the diagnosis and prognosis of this disease mainly by the use of Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI), which directly shows the supply of blood to the heart muscle using an injected radio-tracer. This test is provided in all RMPD units across the region. At the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital in Gateshead there have been significant resource commitments by the local health authority that have enabled a five-fold increase in the numbers and an eradication of a 10 month waiting list in less than a year. Pivotal in the modernisation of this service has been the close day-to-day involvement of a Consultant Cardiologist, Dr. John Barker, who is committed to providing the best evidence based techniques for the Trust's patients.
MPI involves two scans - one to look at baseline ('rest') heart blood flow and one to look at 'stress' blood flow when the heart needs to work harder to supply more blood to the body e.g. when exercising. Instead of exercise, the QE use the drug adenosine for stressing, which is much quicker and more tolerable for patients than other drugs.
An innovation at the QE is clinical supervision of the stress test by cardiology nurse practitioners. A state of the art dual headed gamma camera that rotates around in the patient is used to obtain a series of images of the heart. Head of the RMPD Unit at the QE, Peter Bartholomew, said: "One particular promising innovation is that tests are now carried out three days after the heart attack on the patients who have been brought into the hospital. In other hospitals these tests are usually carried out on an 'out-patient' basis."
Regional Medical Physics Department, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6BE, UK.
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Regional Medical Physics Department, a Clinical Directorate of the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
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