Royal Brompton Hospital will use the first MRI of its kind in the UK to help identify new ways to assess the risk of heart disease, enabling earlier treatment and prevention. The unprecedented gradient strength of the MAGNETOM Cima.X from Siemens Healthineers enables novel heart scanning techniques using diffusion-weighted imaging. Research at the hospital will explore the relationship between the complex heart microstructure and how the heart works in three-dimensions at a microscopic level. Royal Brompton Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Siemens Healthineers celebrate two decades of partnership with the first UK installation of a MAGNETOM Cima.X MRI system, enabling novel heart scanning techniques using diffusion-weighted imaging. One objective of the team’s cardiac diffusion imaging research is to define the micro-architecture of the heart empowering a deep, new understanding of how it works in three-dimensions at a microscopic level. The technique will help identify new ways to assess the risk of heart attacks, congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy, enabling earlier treatments and preventing heart attacks and death.
The team have already carried out extensive research using diffusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) to reveal how the cells of the heart are arranged and depict the full architecture of the heart muscle. Using the scanner, they will be able to combine diffusion technique, artificial intelligence and computer modelling to establish the relationship between the complex heart microstructure and how the heart contracts and pumps blood, this will be the first of this type of research. The programme will also look at how to apply new display techniques using holograms for immersive three-dimensional visualisation with virtual reality.
With unprecedented gradient strength, the MAGNETOM Cima.X from Siemens Healthineers is set to push the boundaries of the team’s well established cardiac diffusion imaging research. The hospital was among the first to use electrocardiograms to study the heart in the early 20th century and was one of the first to open a cardiac MRI centre forty years ago. By enabling visualisation of underlying structures that were previously unseeable, the team will amplify their understanding of heart health.
“This is a real jewel in the crown for the National Heart and Lung Institute, for Royal Brompton, and for Guy’s and St Thomas’,” states Dudley Pennell, Director of the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit at Royal Brompton and Professor of Cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute. “That we are now able to offer our patients five CMR scanners, and conduct 20,000 scans a year across our partnership, is a huge credit to our long partnership with Siemens Healthineers and their pioneering technology and expertise.”
“Together with Royal Brompton Hospital we are marking a new chapter in cardiac care and innovation with the first UK installation of a MAGNETOM Cima.X from Siemens Healthineers,” states Alistair Piggot, Magnetic Resonance Business Manager at Siemens Healthineers Great Britain & Ireland. “With unprecedented gradient strength and AI technology, the new system enables us to illuminate pathways to early detection, personalised treatment, and ultimately, the preservation of heart health.”
