Specialist cardiac scanning service improves care for more than 1,000 at KGH

Consultant Cardiologist Dr Adrian Cheng set up the specialist cardiac MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) service at KGH in 2014 to improve diagnostic services for local people with heart problems.

This service is among the first of its kind to be commissioned in the UK by NHS England.

Dr Cheng said: “We are delighted that our cardiac MRI service has become so well established and that we have been able to use it to improve the care of more than 1,200 patients since its launch.

“Many people are referred to hospital with troubling symptoms that might be related to their heart, like chest pain, breathlessness and palpitations.

“A cardiac MRI scan can help to identify the source of the problem and guide further treatment.

“Cardiac MRI complements the other imaging modalities that we offer and gives us a far more comprehensive way of assessing our patients.

“Together with the other cardiac services available at KGH, cardiac MRI allows us to provide integrated, tailored and evidence-based care to local patients with heart problems, and to do this quickly and close to their homes.”

Previously patients in Northamptonshire underwent invasive tests or less specialised imaging, or had to travel to Leicester, Oxford or Cambridge to have a cardiac MRI.

If problems are found, KGH’s £4.7m Cardiac Centre provides a wide range of care including invasive angiography (X-ray and dye test of the heart arteries) and angioplasty (opening heart narrowings with stents) and implantation of devices, such as loop recorders, pacemakers and defibrillators.