29/10/2010
Amazing heart images as ribbon cut on state-of-the-art
scanner
A cutting-edge medical scanning centre
is opened today at University of Edinburgh. Opened by the Duke
of Edinburgh, the BHF invested £3 million in the centre
to give researchers a vital window on heart disease.
Scientists at the Clinical
Research Imaging Centre - which cost £20 million
in total - will use the technology to uncover the secrets
of the heart.
The BHF-funded magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) scanner uses magnets and sophisticated computer technology to
provide highly detailed, instant, real-time moving
images of the inside of the body, without using
radiation.
The scanner is extremely
advanced and can build up images of many different types
of organ and tissue.
As one of several sophisticated imaging
machines at the new facility, the MRI scanner will help
develop new techniques and find new
treatments for heart disease and other illnesses, whilst
reducing the need for invasive surgery in diagnosis.
High tech imaging can provide us with a window on the heart that’s clearer than ever.
Professor Peter Weissberg
Professor Peter Weissberg,
Medical Director at the BHF, said: “High tech imaging can provide
us with a
window on the heart that’s clearer than
ever. Thanks to our supporters we’ve been able to fund the
MRI scanner in this fantastic new centre in Edinburgh."
BHF Chair of Cardiology at the
University of Edinburgh, Professor
David Newby, said:
"This world-leading new centre brings together the very latest
imaging technologies in a single facility.
"With the University's world-leading clinical research, this
will allow a major improvement in our ability rapidly to
investigate and understand the most serious and distressing
diseases in our patients."
The University of Edinburgh is one of four
BHF Centres of Research
Excellence.
The BHF's funding goes towards buying a
Siemens Verio 3.0T MRI scanner and associated high-tech equipment,
including an electronic picture archiving and communication (PACS)
system.