Transcription:
Cardiac MRI Information

Melanie Cole (Host):  Welcome to TVH Health Chat with Temecula Valley Hospital. I’m Melanie Cole and today, we’re discussing the Cardiac MRI Program at Temecula Valley Hospital. Joining me is Kristie Janabajal. She’s the Imaging Director of Temecula Valley Hospital. Kristie, I’m so glad to have you with us today. Before we talk about Cardia MRI, I hear you are the only hospital in your region with a Cardiac MRI Program. Tell us a little bit about what that is. Tell us about the program and while you are doing that, tell us what is a Cardiac MRI?

Kristie Janabajal, Imaging Director (Guest):  So, at Temecula Valley Hospital, we are a designated semi-receiving center which means that we take all of the heart attacks that come within this region and we help them by taking them to the cath lab, providing care for them, making sure that they have stents placed in and that they’re really taken care of as far as the cardiovascular sense. So, right now, Temecula Valley is considered a chest pain center of accreditation with primary PCI and resuscitation certification which means that anybody that’s having a heart attack will immediately come to our area and they will be treated by us through our cath lab and so we provide a lot of other types of imaging as well to help work up and follow up any type of heart attack that they may have had including up to doing some type of open heart surgery if necessary.

So, the imaging portion of it really helps the specialists such as the cardiothoracic surgeons and the cardiologists that intervene on these heart attacks to be able to better see what exactly is going on with their patients.

Host:  How cool is that? So tell the listeners what are the advantages of a Cardiac MRI? What exactly does it image that might be different than an echocardiogram or a regular MRI? Tell us exactly what that is and what it images.

Kristie:  So, a Cardiac MRI is a noninvasive MRI scan that can detect or monitor cardiac disease and evaluate anatomy and function in patients with either congenital heart disease something that they were born with and cardiovascular disease that they may have developed after birth. So, anything that might have occurred from a heart attack from high cholesterol, any type of disease that they may have encountered after birth is something that we can actually visualize with a Cardiac MRI. It’s also used to help plan cardiovascular surgery such as open heart so CABG, bypass grafts, any type of tumor, tumor location, any type of function with the heart chambers, heart valves. We can see any type of damage that a heart attack may have done to the muscle itself. So, we would be able to see and monitor the effects of coronary artery disease such as from the heart attack to see how much of the heart was actually affected.

And then we can also see and monitor over time, any type of other disorders that were congenital or have developed and then we can also see blood vessels and effects that surgery may have had prior to any type of intervention.

Host:  So, then tell us the criteria for a referral for a Cardiac MRI. Who might need one? What types of conditions if someone has high blood pressure or they have heart disease, or they know that they have some blockages in arteries. Tell us really who might get a referral for this. And are there any symptoms that a patient would bring to their doctor that would warrant further investigation by a Cardiac MRI?

Kristie:  So, for Cardiac MRI, these are mainly ordered by a cardiologist. Due to the fact that they are very specialized in what we are looking for. We could be looking for something congenital. We could be looking for something that specifically the cardiologist may have placed as far as maybe a stent or some type of device that they may have placed around or inside the heart that they might want to evaluate. So, a lot of MR cardiacs come directly from cardiologists. So, patients that may have had chest pain, history of coronary artery disease in their family, if they have any type of maybe congenital disease that’s in their family but they don’t necessarily have themselves, they can always get that checked out as well. And then those cardiac MRIs that are ordered are actually red by a specialized radiologist which is why MR cardiacs is so specialized and there’s not very many places that do these because of the fact that not all radiologists have been trained to be able to read this specific type of exam.

We were fortunate enough to have a cardiothoracic radiologist within the group and this cardiothoracic radiologist assists us with helping us scan the patient, find exactly what it is that we’re looking for. They also help the ordering physician with looking at the patient’s history and their prior surgeries and trying to map out exactly what the plan of care the patient will be getting. So, it’s very lucky to have this cardiothoracic radiologist on board to be able to have that group interaction and really make it a team effort when it comes to cardiovascular care.

Host:  Well you certainly do. So, for people that are concerned, maybe claustrophobic, they’ve heard about MRIs, they take a while, they are a little noisy. Tell us a little bit about the cardiac MRI. How long does it take. Is it kind of similar to an MRI you might have of your back. Is it noisy? Does it take a while? Tell us a little bit about the procedure itself.

Kristie:  So, a cardiac MRI is just like any other MRI. You do go into this tube. We are fortunate to have a large bore MRI. It is not necessarily an open MRI, like some of the other outpatient facilities. We really want that coil to be right next to that patient because it causes a lot of interference if it’s farther away. So, for MRI, you do want to make sure that if you are claustrophobic, let your cardiologist or the ordering physician know. That way we can go ahead and preplan ahead of time. We have things to help make things a little bit easier in the MRI suite. We do have noise cancelling earphones that we can play any type of music you would like. We also have little sleep shades that we put over the eyes like a sleep mask that are a little funny because they say I survived my MRI. And we have a little sense of humor there on that one.

We make sure that we are completely comfortable before we get you in there. It is completely okay to say that I can’t be in there for too long and that you may need a break. This exam does take about an hour or so of your time. So, it’s very important just to keep communication with the MRI tech and make sure that you’re going to be comfortable yourself, you feel comfortable and that nothing is making you feel anxious. Because we do need you to be awake during this exam because we give you breathing instructions and we want to make sure that you understand what we’re saying when we’re saying it.

So, it’s very important that we don’t put you completely under and make you sleepy. So, then you can go ahead and give us those directions that we desperately need in order to get a great image of your heart. Your heart is right next to your lungs so it’s very important that when we give breath holds, that you’re able to communicate and be able to follow the instructions.

Host:  That was excellent summary Kristie. So, wrap it up for us. What would you like listeners to know about referral for Cardiac MRI? What makes you at Temecula Valley Hospital so unique in having that cardiac MRI and really what you want people to know about this amazing bit of technology.

Kristie:  Cardiac MRI is very interesting. It’s very great to look at. It’s very innovative. Not many places actually have this and are available and able to be able to read this exam. It gives the cardiologists and the cardiothoracic surgeons a lot of detail that they normally wouldn’t get on a CT scan or even in a cardiac cath lab. Sometimes even when they open up and do an open heart surgery, sometimes they don’t get to see all of the things that are actually happening. We are not only looking at anatomy, but we’re looking at the function and seeing how is your blood flow actually functioning inside your heart. So, it’s a very great technology that’s here and we only hope to make it better in the future. We are looking to do more and more with our MRI machine and so cardiacs is just the tip of the iceberg, I think. We are looking to do a lot more with the cardiac scans, the neuro scans and orthopedics for MRI. We are very lucky at Temecula Valley Hospital to be able to update and make sure we have the latest technology on that MRI scanner that we have.

So, MRI cardiacs is a great tool especially if you’re looking to see how is my heart actually functioning. We can see that with the coronaries in a cath lab and we can see coronaries in a CT, but actually see muscle and how it’s working and MR Cardiac is the best way to go.

Host:  Absolutely really cool technology. Kristie, thank you so much for joining us today. to make an appointment, or to find out if you’re a candidate for referral for a cardiac MRI you can call 951-331-2262 Monday through Friday 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. or you can head over to our website at www.temeculavalleyhospital.com for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. That concludes this episode of TVH Health Chat with Temecula Valley Hospital. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Temecula Valley Hospital podcasts. Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Temecula Valley Hospital. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians. I’m Melanie Cole.