The technology is similar to cardiac ultrasound, however, the procedure currently gives a “slice” through the heart, requiring a highly trained medical professional to deduce what the rest of the organ looks like.
General Electric’s software cSound, can analyze the data sent to it during the ultrasound and process it into a video image of any organ.
"According to doctors, the new 4D cardiovascular ultrasound machines produce[s] images so detailed that they can actually see how blood flow is affected by clots inside arteries, or how much blood is leaking around a valve that`s malfunctioning," Gizmodo reported.
What’s more, cSound can process about five gigabytes of information a second.
The first health care center to see the software in action was the Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The facility treats complicated heart conditions, and according to local cardiologist Bijoy Khandheria, the new software can “help efficiently and accurately diagnose and develop treatment plans for people suffering from heart failure conditions,” the GE press release stated.
A similar 4D ultrasound technology was previously developed for generating images of fetuses in the womb, but it only used one color to project the baby to the parents.
However, the cardiac ultrasound demonstrates various parts of the heart in different colors, helping to provide the correct diagnosis.
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