A medical imaging technology company has developed advanced software that can capture the heart beating in "extreme 4D".
GE Healthcare has created the "cSound", a cardiovascular ultrasound scanner that can render the heart in life-like dimensions in "real time", offering a far more detailed glimpse of the organ than conventional ultrasound.
The cSound can collect a vast amount of data, and its makers claim that it's powerful enough to process a full DVD's worth of information in a single second. Furthermore, rather than discarding any data that it can't immediately process, the software stores it in the machine's memory for future analysis, using algorithms to create the best pixel-by-pixel images possible.
The nifty gadget also features built-in colour maps that can colour-code different parts of the heart -- from the arteries and valves to the ventricles -- to help detect anything unusual. The cSound's inner workings, which use sound waves rather than radiation, are based on the transmitters and receivers used in seismology, radar and Wi-Fi communications, alongside supercomputer data processing.
GE developed the technology after taking inspiration from ultrasound scans used during pregnancy. Software engineer Eric Steen said: "It's a similar algorithm, but there are some important differences." "When you are doing 4D foetal imaging, you want to see the nice smooth surface of the skin. But cardiologists want to see differences in the heart tissue. So we built them colour maps that can do that," he continued.
It's believed that cSound could help to improve accurate diagnoses of heart conditions -- reducing the need for costly additional testing -- and also be used on patients who are currently hard to scan, such as those suffering from lung disease.
Bijoy Khandheria, a cardiologist at Wisconsin's Aurora St. Luke's Medical Centre, whose team are already using the cSound, said: "The images are exquisite. It's like opening the chest and seeing the heart beating."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
