Hi-tech images boost for heart care

Prototype technology built by doctors and researchers in Sheffield is capable of detecting which heart patients need treatment more accurately than the human eye by creating a three-dimensional model of coronary arteries from X-rays known as angiograms, reducing the need for further invasive tests and procedures.

Now software is to be trialled on 100 heart patients from South Yorkshire thanks to a £800,000 award supported by the Wellcome Trust charity, the Department of Health and the British Heart Foundation.

The technology could play a vital role in tackling coronary heart disease, which remains the UK’s biggest killer, with 48,000 people suffering a heart attack in South Yorkshire alone last year.

Doctors decide how to treat coronary artery disease by looking at X-rays of arteries. This involves inserting a tube through the wrist or groin and injecting dye into the arteries to find out where, and how severely, the arteries are diseased. Specialists say it is an excellent test but results can be open to differences of interpretation.

Julian Gunn, a consultant cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Any patient with coronary heart disease who has an angiogram can, in the future, have a computerised assessment of the significance of their disease.

“This will enable the cardiologist or surgeon to know where to place a bypass graft or stent, without any further tests, so this is a real breakthrough for patients.

“The technology will further improve the diagnosis and may reduce the need for some patients to have more invasive tests afterwards.

“It will also help doctors decide which arteries need treating and even which bits of which arteries and guide therapy.”