LONDON —  Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London has expanded its slate of advanced cardiac imaging tools to include 3D transoesophageal echocardiography. The addition supports full diagnostics for heart valve diseases, with assessments and review by Mayo Clinic Healthcare experts in the UK and their colleagues in the U.S.

Transoesophageal echo is a state-of-the-art imaging assessment that provides immediate, accurate and cost-effective diagnostic information about the heart. It works through a thin scope that accesses specific internal views of the heart via the esophagus. The patient is under mild sedation during the process.

The scope allows the clinicians to view moving images of the patient’s beating inner heart on a monitor. The images generated by transoesophageal echo can be measured and used for diagnosis, allowing for detailed planning of therapies. This imaging method compliments other heart imaging tools used at Mayo Clinic Healthcare, such as transthoracic echo, exercise stress echo, CT scan and cardiac MRI.

Notably, transoesophageal echo plays a central role in the diagnosis and management of heart valve problems, such as thickening and narrowing of a valve (stenosis) or a leak in a valve that allows blood to back up (regurgitation). This type of imaging is also a key in diagnosing infective endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart’s lining that can damage valves. A patient may need heart valve surgery if infection has caused damage, or if a valve defect is affecting the heart’s ability to pump blood.

“Using transoesophageal echo, we can confirm an initial diagnosis of heart valve disease or provide a useful second opinion to guide a patient’s next steps. When surgical repair or heart valve replacement is needed to regain healthy blood flow, our Mayo Clinic Healthcare team consults with interventional cardiology colleagues and surgeons in the U.S. to offer patients highly personalized recommendations,” says Gosia Wamil, M.D., Ph.D., a consultant cardiologist at Mayo Clinic Healthcare.

Experience and outcomes are important considerations in surgical valve repair or replacement. Mayo Clinic surgeons and interventional cardiologists in the U.S. do a high volume of heart valve surgeries and show proven success in minimally invasive robotic heart surgery, open-heart surgeries and structural heart disease procedures such as TAVI and MitraClip.

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video of a transesophageal echo is available in the downloads at the end of the post. “Source: Mayo Clinic Healthcare.”

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About Mayo Clinic Healthcare
Mayo Clinic Healthcare, located in London, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit academic medical center. Mayo Clinic in the United States is ranked No. 1 in more specialties than any other hospital by U.S. News & World Report for a reason: quality of care. Mayo Clinic Healthcare is the United Kingdom’s front door to that unparalleled experience. Visit Mayo Clinic Healthcare for more information.

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Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, newsbureau@mayo.edu