Background
Antofagasta hosts the main public hospital of northern Chile, the cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery referral centre for a region of more than 1.2 million people. Until now it had no cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR): patients had to travel over 12 hours south for a quality study.
The region is also a hotspot for Fabry disease in Chile, with at least 30 confirmed patients, most of whom had never had access to CMR.
The project
After more than a year of planning, the hospital’s GE scanner was upgraded with state-of-the-art cardiac software, including parametric mapping and SONIC DL, with technical support from GE and logistic support from NGS.
A multidisciplinary team of cardiac imaging specialists, cardiologists, radiologists and a geneticist performed 25–30 CMR studies over two full days, while training the local cardiologists, radiologists and technologists, closing with a workshop on CMR in cardiomyopathies.
Assessment for every patient
- 12-lead ECG
- Transthoracic Doppler echocardiography
- CMR with CINE, parametric mapping, late gadolinium enhancement and flow as indicated
- Genetic counselling, with NGS when appropriate
- Educational material on Anderson-Fabry disease
The project was endorsed by the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) and followed its clinical protocols, including the SCMR 30-minute protocol.
The bigger goal: helping the hospital build a sustainable CMR programme for northern Chile. FABRYTON is the first step.