St James installs RealTime 4D ultrasound system

St James Hospital yesterday launched a state-of-the-art RealTime 4D ultrasound system, which if applied in good measure, can reduce the death rate among breast cancer patients by up to 30 per cent, the hospital said.

The machine also makes it possible to take pictures of babies in the womb in photo realistic quality.

The machine was launched at a press conference at St James Hospital in Zabbar.

RealTime 4D technology gives doctors a unique, three-dimensional view at internal organs in real time with 16 images per second.

As a result doctors can form an impression of the tumours tissue in the female breast with a degree of precision previously unknown. Traditional 2D ultrasound images can be difficult to read.

Should a biopsy be necessary to clarify the suspect tumour from a histological standpoint, RealTime 4D technology guarantees a 100 per cent accuracy when it comes to targeting the lesion on the very first go, with tumours with a diameter of as little as five millimetre.

Statistics released by the World Health Organisation show that to date, the degree of accuracy with small lesions equalled around 50 per cent, which meant that women often had to undergo this unpleasant procedure several times.

The second improvement is that the mother and her family may view live 3D images of unborn babies directly from the womb.

The ultrasound machine has already been installed in nearly 200 hospitals in the US, and in 600 other locations around the world.