Physiological exercise testing during Cardiac MRI is now possible with the newly developed Lode MRI Cardiac Ergometer.
The ability to detect ischemic
heart disease before myocardial infarction is very important. Cardiac MRI (research carried out with the Philips Gyroscan NT, 0.5 T) gives the following opportunities:
- High resolution imaging during myocardial stress to evaluate regional wall motion
- Myocardial imaging in order to study regional deficits in perfusion during stress, coronary artery imaging
- spectroscopic imaging during stress to study metabolic evidence of ischemia (research carried out with Philips 1.5 T)
Early functional evaluation is needed because:
- Myocardial Ischemia can occur in the absence of disease of the epicardial coronary arteries.
- Arterial disease can occur without causing myocardial ischemia.
- Knowledge of coronary anatomy is inferior to functional tests.
- Myocardial perfusion vs coronary anatomy:
- Coronary flow reserve is also dependent on more geometrical factors than only percentage stenosis.
- development of collateral vessels.
The new generation of imagers makes it a fast method to measure cardiac gated multi phase sequences. The Lode MRI Ergometer is a MR compatible ergometer which allows
physiological excercise testing with the major upper leg muscle.
Now you can use an ergometer in the magnet without interference on the MRI experiment. And
you will obtain proper cardiac MR images during exercise with heart rates above 100 bpm. The Lode MR Ergometer meets the following necessary physiological requirements:
- Dynamic cycling exercise.
- Major upper leg muscles active.
- Supine position.
- Comfort of patient:
- Controlled increase in cardiac output and myocardial oxygen demand.
- Stepwise and linear increments and decrements of power and heart rate.
- Individual preference of pedaling rate. (With the well known Lode Workload Programmer, see other Lode products.)
The MRI Cardiac Ergometer is compatible with: The GE-Horizon (General Electrics), Magneton Vision (Siemens) and the Philips 0,5; 1 and 1,5 Tesla models.
Drawings of the GE, Siemens and Philips will be sent on request. |
