Eisenstadt hospital adds MRI scanner and heart catheter lab

The Barmherzige Brüder Hospital in Eisenstadt is adding a new MRI scanner and a newly equipped heart catheterisation laboratory, ORF reports. The MRI is intended to shorten waiting times for examinations in Burgenland.

The centrepiece of the new laboratory is a biplane system with two X-ray tubes. It can produce two images with each injection of contrast medium, allowing procedures to be completed faster and with less contrast, particularly benefiting patients with impaired kidney function, said Rudolf Berger, head of the hospital’s internal medicine department.

A dedicated admissions and follow-up area beside the laboratory is designed to reduce the distances patients need to travel. Patients will be prepared and monitored there before and after their examination, and can be discharged directly from the area, said hospital managing director Robert Maurer.

Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil said he was encouraged by the prospect that minimally invasive heart procedures could be carried out as day treatments or allow patients to return home within a day or two.

The new MRI scanner uses 3-tesla technology, which radiology technology manager Lukas Hahn said provides higher resolution and shorter examination times. It can show very small lesions, tumours and injuries. The hospital’s medical director, Martin Wehrschütz, said the aim was to cut waiting times from 25 working days to 10. The scanner is due to enter service in early November.