Gifford Upgrades
Its Cardiac Diagnostics

Patients undergoing cardiac studies in Gifford Medical Center's nuclear medicine department are getting faster—often life-saving—diagnoses thanks to a new, high-tech gamma camera at the Randolph hospital.

"Nuclear medicine is functional imaging," explained Lyndell Davis, Gifford nuclear medicine supervisor. "Our studies show the doctor how the organ is working."

The images are created by giving the patient a small amount of a radioactive substance, called a "tracer," which is injected into the bloodstream. Gamma cameras detect the energy emitted from the tracer inside the body and transform the energy into images.

Gifford's new camera provides higher quality images.

It also has a more comfortable imaging "palate," or bed, suitable for patients weighing up to 400 pounds, is faster than the older machine, and has a DVD player and screen that patients may watch while receiving scans.

Gifford’s nuclear medicine staff does a host of different scans with the camera—bone, biliary, thyroid, renal, sentinel node, white blood cell and gastrointestinal bleed scans. For cardiac patients, however, the new technology has the most benefit.

Previously, scans showing movement, such as the beating of the heart, could not be transferred electronically to larger hospitals, to be read by cardiologists and radiologists there. As a result, it sometimes took as long as 72 hours to have the images analyzed.

With the new camera, cardiac studies done at Gifford are sent almost instantly to Fletcher Allen in Burlington, and results are back often in the same day.

Trust Donates Stress-Test System

Technology upgrades for cardiology patients don't stop with the new gamma camera. The cardiopulmonary department at Gifford Medical Center has a new cardiac stress-testing system, thanks to the generosity of the Melissa Andrews Trust.

Melissa Andrews was a Northfield woman who lost a child to tuberculosis. When Andrews died in the 1920s, she left a small trust to be used to prevent and cure tuberculosis. Mike Demasi and Bill Lyon, both of Northfield, are fund trustees.

With tuberculosis now treatable with antibiotics, the trust's scope has broadened to include other respiratory care.

The trust previously gave Gifford pulmonary function test equipment, which is still in use. This latest gift provides a $20,000 upgrade and opens the door to electronic transmissions.

Cardiac stress tests are performed on a treadmill, with a computer reading the heart's electrical activity through an electrocardiogram test for signs of decreased blood flow to the heart or heart disease.

The new system will also soon allow the studies to be transmitted electronically.

The ability to transfer data electronically means that patients in need of emergency heart care will get it sooner, said Denise Rochman, cardiopulmonary department manager.

"I love it," she said of the new equipment. "We're very thankful the Melissa Andrews Trust was able to donate this stress system to us, as it's helping us improve the level of care that our patients receive.

"It also enables patients to receive the highest quality of care locally, without having to travel to a larger facility."

Together, the new stress test system and gamma camera "will significantly improve the quality of this imaging modality in order to better detect coronary artery disease, which is the most frequent cause of death," according to cardiologist Dr. Markus Meyer, who practices at Gifford and at Fletcher Allen Health Care.