Leesons Hospital installs world’s most advanced cardiac 640 slice CT scanner

• Offers most sophisticated cardiac imaging system in the world
• Fastest scanning with minimal x-ray exposure
• Specialised TOSHIBA cardiac MRI scanner completes 500 successful investigations.

Leesons Hospital (Pvt) Ltd, the leading private healthcare provider to the Gampaha region, announced the recent installation of the world’s most advanced 640 slice CT scanning system with a view to drastically enhance diagnostics capabilities in Sri Lanka while ensuring optimal patient safety.

Installed by Mediquipment, a well-respected provider of machines and services for the medical industry, the new Toshiba Aquilion ONE ViSION EDITION – CT scanner is the most sophisticated dynamic volume CT scanner anywhere in the world. A detector large and fast enough to capture complete scans of the heart in a single beat, enables successful and highly reliable examination of patients while ensuring the lowest possible exposure to radiation.

The Aquilion ONE ViSION EDITION is manufactured by Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, Japan, now a Canon group company. The acquisition in December last year was part of larger plans from Canon to enhance its presence in the medical sector, leveraging on the internationally renowned reputation of Toshiba as a manufacturer of highest quality Ultrasound, CT, MRI and X-Ray systems.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to announce the significant upgrade to our diagnostic capabilities with the installation of the Toshiba Aquilion ONE ViSION EDITION at Leesons Hospital. As always, patient safety and comfort remain our paramount concern, and with this machine, we can ensure a minimal x-ray dose of 0.26 mSv, less than from a chest x-ray, or even the radiation that we are generally exposed to on an airline flight.

“Particularly with cardiac scans, the image needs to be captured in the interval between heartbeats, so the technology must be quick enough to complete its scan in that fraction of a second to get the clearest possible image. This new machine means that Leesons can now offer the highest quality diagnostics in Sri Lanka, on par with the most advanced hospitals in the world. We encourage our patients to visit our facility and make maximum use of these remarkable new capabilities,” Leesons Hospital Managing Director, Saman Krishantha said.

Routinely completing scans in just 0.275 seconds, the Toshiba Aquilion combines next generation Quantum Vi detectors with integrated dose-reduction solutions to ensure fastest possible scans in the country while its large 78cm bore ensures a greater comfort and less confined experience than a typical CT/MRI scanner.

The new machine rounds out the high-end radiology suite of Leesons, bringing them on par with the best healthcare and diagnostic facilities in the world, with its most immediate and promising application being in the diagnosis of a range of different cardiovascular health issues such as an unstable angina caused by cholesterol blockages of arteries.

In the two years that Leesons has been operating its radiology unit – including high end CT, MRI, X-ray and ultrasound facilities – it has already completed 500 cardiac MRI scans using its Toshiba Vantage Elan 1.5T MRI scanning machine, installed last year with specialized cardiac scanning software – another first among the best available in the country.

First established in 1979 as a small dispensary by Mr. P. H. Leelananda, a well respected businessman hailing from the Gampaha district, it was later converted into a small nursing home with 10-bed capacity in 1989.

Since then, Leesons has grown into a fully-fledged healthcare institution providing top-quality medical services with 90-bed capacity, an Intensive Care Unit, an Emergency Treatment Unit with 5 beds, 4 modern operating  theaters, 140 channeling chambers, a dedicated dialysis unit, blood bank, eye-treatment unit and 24 hour pharmacy, laboratory, ambulance services and an outpatient department run with 160 dedicated nursing paramedical support staff.