BHUBANESWAR: The Apollo Hospitals, Bhubaneswar has acquired state-of-the-art coronary imaging equipment which allow cardiologists to look inside blood vessels of the heart during angioplasty and help accurate assessment of blockages.
The 3D Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) comes with an in-built fractional flow reserve (FFR) to study blood flow in the coronary artery. Earlier, it had procured Intravascular Ultrasound.
With acquisition of the OCT, Apollo Hospitals has become the only heart centre in Eastern India to possess such an equipment.
According to Dr Prasant Kumar Sahoo, senior cardiologist and Director of Interventional Cardiology of the hospital, the imaging technology will help provide the best treatment in coronary angioplasty and stenting.
Since it is scientifically proven that not all stenting procedures are safe and effective, tools like OCT and IVUS ensure that the implanted stents are deployed well within the lesion. It also gives long-term benefit to patients, he added.
HoD and Director Cardiology, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar Dr PC Rath said the OCT imaging helps identification of accurate assessment of lesion and right treatment strategies. Senior interventional cardiologist Dr BR Das also echoed similar views.
Since the technology enables detection of functionally significant coronary blocks, it helps assessment and avoids complications to improve treatment in a cost-effective manner, Dr Sahoo added.