Daily Times

LAHORE: The Government of Punjab has decided to purchase two state-of-the-art machines including Cardiovascular computed tomography (CT) and Cardiac Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC). The purchasing cost of these machines has been estimated at Rs 671 million for both machines and two PC-1s have also been submitted to Planning & Development (P&D) department for approval.

Well informed sources in Specialized Healthcare & Medical Education told Daily Times that there is only one C.T.Angiography machine working at PIC in the last eight years. This machine was purchased and installed during the financial year 2006-2007. The existing non invasive cardiac diagnostic facilities cannot keep up with the increasing workload of Indoor/OPD patients. There is an urgent need of an additional Cardiac C.T. Angiography to provide the preventive measures on a primary basis for the coming patients from far flung area of the Punjab province and all of Pakistan. Hospital administration estimated Rs 300 million cost of latest CT machine and 35.630 would required for pay and allowance of staff and in respect of annual operational cost.

Workload of invasive and non invasive diagnostic facilities has increased dramatically during last the ten years. The existing non invasive diagnostic facilities at PIC are not sufficient for the increasing load of cardiac patients.

A new cardiovascular C.T would be a new technological advancement which can provide excellent information about the status of coronary arteries in a non-invasive way in a very short time. The device is capable of performing non invasive coronary angiography, which has been found to be very cost effective, low risk and financially viable. In addition, Cardiovascular CT is capable of performing dynamic cardiac perfusion studies, gated cardiac studies as well as calcium scoring of arteries. Cardiovascular CT can also provide detailed information about overall health status of patients undergoing cardiac surgical procedures in pre-operative & post-operative period.

The cardiac MRI is a new technological advancement, which can provide excellent information about the structure and function of the heart in a non-invasive way without any radiation exposure. Cardiac MRI is capable of performing non-invasive coronary Angiography without the use of iodine contrast making it particularly useful in patients with renal impairment of myocardial perfusion, viability and left ventricular function.