Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

Contact Us: (632) 723-0101 ext. 5401; Direct Line: (632) 727-5401
Location: Ground Floor, Main Hospital Building

Gold Standard in Cardiovascular Imaging

St. Luke's Medical Center has once again taken a giant leap forward with the acquisition of what is described as the gold standard in cardiovascular imaging, the Xper FD10 CATHLAB system with Flat Panel Detector. St. Luke's latest acquisition, the first and only one in the Philippines, provides clinicians with enhanced image quality, increased efficiency and excellent clinical performance while reducing radiation dose to both patient and physician. This translates to the safest and most precise cardiovascular diagnostic and treatment tool in the country today.

Imagine the difference between your conventional TV set and the latest high-resolution plasma TV screen!

One feature of the CATHLAB flat panel detector system is a software which can detect the exact location of the patient on the table, and allows the panel to move at speed and then stop just one centimeter away from the patient's body, improving patient safety. The Xper FD10 Flat Panel Detector captures real time, 3D impressions of complex vasculature and coronary arteries, saving time and contrast while providing better visualization of anatomical parts and subtle differences in tissues. The Xper Flat Panel Detector allows clinicians to customize settings, helping to boost workflow efficiency and integration.

This new technology is a huge benefit because it delivers the highest quality of imaging ensuring precise positioning of stents and devices in acute cases where speed and accuracy are of paramount importance. In today's complex environment, it can spell the difference between success and failure. The improved image quality also helps clinicians see much lower levels of calcification, staying one step ahead during diagnosis and avoiding potential errors in the choice of treatment and devices.

This addition to the CATHLAB provides St. Luke's with a facility that is far superior than any other CATHLAB in the country today, with the most comprehensive line of services available in the diagnosis, treatment and management of cardiovascular diseases from simple diagnostic angiograms to complex invasive procedures.

In the past, St. Luke's Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory gave the Philippines its first endoluminal repair. The procedure was done on a 58-year old female with thoraco abdominal dissection. Since then, the Cardiac Cath Lab has been at the forefront in recent advances in Cardiovascular Interventional Therapeutics. It continues to offer treatment alternatives to a host of cardiovascular diseases with lesser financial costs, and which alleviate patient's discomfort and reduce mortality and morbidity risks in selected patients.

The St. Luke's CathLab was the first in the country to offer a digital "filmless" angiographic unit, the Philips Integris 500. Back then, this equipment delivered unsurpassed image clarity using radiation at a fraction of the dose required by conventional X-ray machines, thus making the procedures much safer for the patient and the physician. This set-up facilitates rapid and precise vascular and nonvascular diagnosis and therapy, such as general angiography, angioplasty and stenting, embolization, and biopsy and drainage procedures.

Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), available only at St. Luke's, complements traditional angiography because of its ability to present details of vessel wall structure and critical information about plaques, thrombi, or stenosis in vivo. The IVUS, together with the Doppler Flow Wire technology, further evaluates lesion severity and determines the need for and status of revascularization procedures.

Complex calcified lesions that otherwise would have required bypass surgery can now be treated using the CathLab's Rotablator to reopen stenosed coronary arteries by removing hard plaques from vascular walls.

The facility is ideal for the diagnosis and treatment of complex congenital heart problems, valvular diseases, and diseases of the cerebral circulation.

The CathLab is also equipped with dual cameras, which simultaneously diagnose and perform therapeutic interventions with accuracy and precision for complex cardiovascular disorders.

The lab can also store "archive" image results in compact discs, which keep images from fading through the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). PACS is a system that allows patient's examination images to be stored or archived in computers. PACS allows doctors to retrieve these images with a touch of a button from the doctor's office or residence, hospital or anywhere in the world. The images are always ready to be transmitted or referred to whenever the need arises. The system is able to store up to one terabyte of high quality diagnostic images for short-term archive (on-line cases) and six terabytes for long term archive.