Intravascular Ultrasound CARDIAC DEPARTMENT M


edical devices that lend precision to a diagnosis help improve outcomes and reduce healing times. That’s precise-


ly the role of intravascular ultrasound used in Ozarks Healthcare's cardiac department. “What we do is we put a wire inside the artery,


like the heart artery for example,” said Dr. Hussain Ibrahim. “Then we put a very small ultrasound probe on there that goes inside the artery and takes the pictures from inside the heart artery.” Ibrahim said the procedure takes a lot of the guess- work out of diagnosing and treating heart conditions.


“When we are doing an angiogram, we are de- pending on and estimating, for example, the size of the artery and the stent needed, or how bad the blockage is — whether it is 60 percent, whether it is 70 percent or 80 percent,” he said. “With this ultrasound, when it goes inside the artery, we can see exactly how big the artery is. That helps us in two ways. You can diagnose whether this is some- thing which is a severe blockage or not. Then with the treatment, it really reduces poor outcomes be- cause we are no longer estimating; we’re precisely putting in the size of stent that is needed.”


This Spread:


Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a catheter-based imaging technology that allows physicians to visualize blood vessels from the inside out. Photos courtesy of Philips Media.


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