Joplin, MO. – There was a time, decades ago, when Freeman Health System Cardiologist Dr. Ryan Longnecker heavily relied on rolls of chest X-ray film to help diagnose a patient’s heart problem. 

On Monday morning, Freeman’s Director of Cardiovascular Service Line was proud to exhibit Freeman Heart & Vascular Institute’s newly renovated Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Room 1, which will enable the Institute to provide more advanced care for Freeman’s cardiac patients.

The Institute, Dr. Longnecker said, is home to four cath labs; the renovated Room 1 opened just 11 days ago.

“This is an exciting time for us,” he said. “We’ve continued to upgrade and enhance our equipment over the years with cutting-edge technology for the benefit of our patients, and also for the benefit of our staff.”

To that end, the ceiling-mounted, Phillips-manufactured cath lab equipment reduces the radiation dosage a cardiac patient – and the cardiac team working on that patient – receives by nearly 50 percent.

“The reason we’re so excited about this lab is not only is the picture quality amazing, but it actually uses less radiation to take pictures,” Dr. Longnecker said.

X-ray dosage has always been a concern for cardiac physicians and their teams working inside cath labs; it’s the reason why they wear lead-lined suits or aprons to protect themselves from radiation exposure. In the past, a reduction in radiation meant less reliable imaging. Thanks to the new technology, radiation from x-rays is reduced without negatively impacting image quality.

“The pictures this machine generates – they are just amazing,” Dr. Longnecker said.

The system’s technology, he continued, can produce extremely high-quality images for angiograms.

“This is an advancement that we feel is very important for our patients and staff,” Dr. Longnecker continued. “The less radiation that we can be exposed to, the less amount of side effects there will be when working inside the lab.”

Additional benefits the system provides include:

* Creating three-dimensional representations of a patient’s heart and blood vessels.

* Overlaying those 3D images onto a real-time, two-dimensional fluoroscopic view of a patient’s heart helps create a detailed “roadmap” for Dr. Longnecker to follow.

* Due to quality and sharpness of images, less contrast (dye) injections are needed. The dye enhances the visibility of certain tissues or structures in x-rays or CT scans, but the dye can sometimes cause allergic reactions.

* Stent visualization technology so physicians can see old stents inside arteries and help them more easily land new stents

* Can estimate the size of a blockage, helping the physician determine a optimal-sized stent.

The renovated cath lab will only enhance Freeman’s Level 1 STEMI designation, in which Freeman’s door-to-balloon time is less than 55 minutes, lower than the 90-minute recommendation.

“We’re so excited to have this technology and to bring it to the Joplin area,” Dr. Longnecker said, “It’s really second to none.”