The 60-bed Vikram Hospital and Heart Centre, the first super specialty hospital for heart and kidney in Mysore city, is planning to introduce “Sensation 16”, the world’s best high-speed CT scanner installed only in a few places worldwide. The hospital will be the first in Southern India to install this scanner.

“Sensation 16 is a very high-end CT scanner that captures over 40 CT images per second and these images are captured in 3 dimension and real motion. Hence we can image the heart in live motion and in 3 dimension capturing details up to every millimeter. Blocks in the coronary arteries can be visualized even as they are developing and hence remedial measures can be taken to prevent progression to heart attack or need for invasive treatment like angioplasty or bypass surgery.

This non-invasive Coronary Angiogram just takes 20 seconds to perform and is an Out patient procedure. The equipment can also detect early cancer anywhere in the body non-invasively,” explains Dr. S.B. Vikram, managing director and physician of the hospital.

The hospital is in an expansion mode and has planned an investment of Rs. 5 crore for the next year. “We plan to introduce Minimal Invasive surgeries and Endoscopic (key-hole) surgeries in all relevant specialties by 2004. With the recent introduction of pediatric cardiac surgery we cover the entire gamut of cardiology and cardiac surgery” says Dr. Vikram.