High-tech heart imaging comes to PPH

Palomar Pomerado Health’s two healthcare facilities — Pomerado Hospital and Palomar Medical Center — are the first hospitals in North County to offer super 2-D digital imaging of cardiovascular functions.

Palomar Medical Center now has three of the Philips iE33 units, while Pomerado has one — a total cost of about $1.2 million.

The machines represent a new generation of cardiac ultrasound. The high-definition imaging in digital form helps physicians diagnose cardiovascular disease earlier.

“It’s a quantum leap in quality,” according to cardiac technician and sonographer Rich Jachimowicz at Palomar Medical Center.

Technicians use a scanning probe similar to one used for sonograms during a non-invasive procedure over a patient’s chest resulting in relatively little discomfort, Jachimowicz said.

Each machine weighs about 300 pounds, can be rolled right up to a patient’s bed or gurney and the results can be sent anywhere in the building or to a physician offsite, locally or anywhere in the world, he added.

Not only are the images produced more quickly, the sharpness of each in a digital format helps technicians such as Jachimowicz make more accurate measurements, including the volume of blood flowing through the left ventricle, a key indicator of heart health.

Physicians can use the data from these types of exams to determine treatment options and monitor the patient’s progress. Not only can they see the image, but the recording also captures the sounds of the heart.

Previous exams were recorded on video film, but the digital version is proving that it can be produced quicker with a much sharper image than the video version, important for technicians who record the cardiovascular details.

Those determinations go into a report for a physician to determine a patient’s diagnosis, Jachimowicz said.

The new machines have 2-D capabilities, but have the capability of being upgraded to 3-D sometime in the future, according to Jachimowicz.

Software for this type of imaging shows the whole heart and waveforms that depict the function of 17 different segments of the heart simultaneously. Having as much information about the heart’s condition also leads to a more informed diagnosis by the physician and ultimately better longevity for the patient.

“This leads to improved data quality and quantity and reduces the need for the patient to undergo other, more invasive imaging studies,” said Dr. Douglas Moir, a board-certified cardiologist at Palomar.

Because the data is compressed into such a small space, it facilitates storage as well as secure transfers to other physicians via the internet, Moir said.

The iE33 system can perform over 400 echocardiography measurements and calculations, including: Stress echo reviews, quantitative vascular and coronary, left ventricular analysis, venous, arterial and carotid studies, vein mapping, Venous reflux studies, Transesophageal echoes, pediatric echo studies and tissue Doppler studies.

PPH credits Ben and Darlene Fauber of Escondido with providing the seed money to help purchase the four Philips iE33 intelligent echocardiography systems.