Respiratory Mode

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Stanford Reference: 09-401 Abstract Researchers at Stanford University have developed a method to acquire and display heart images to detect cardiovascular diseases. Some diseases do not affect heart contraction, rather they cause changes in heart size and shape only with breathing. Detecting these changes while looking at images of the contracting heart can be challenging. This method removes the changes from the heart contracting from the images and only shows the changes from breathing. This method could be incorporated as a powerful new feature in imaging machines used in echocardiography or cardiovascular MRI. It could be particularly important in diagnosing cardiovascular conditions such as constrictive pericarditis, pericardial tamponade and pulmonary embolism. Applications Cardiovascular imaging - enhances clinicians’ capability to visualize respiration-related changes in the heart, aiding diagnosis Imaging machine enhancement - creates an additional visualization option for heart imaging machines Advantages Improved diagnoses - Provides clearer, more diagnostic images for detecting diseases where respiratory effects are important, such as constrictive pericarditis, pericardial tamponade and pulmonary embolism