Why the General Hospital of Alicante is a National Leader in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The Radiodiagnosis Service at the General Hospital of Alicante is recognized as a national leader in cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). According to the Health Department, this is due to both its activity volume, with 1,650 studies conducted last year, and the high specialization of its professionals, who have extensive experience in performing these studies. Since it began conducting cardiac studies in 2001, more than 15,000 procedures have been carried out by this service.

"The Doctor Balmis Hospital is among the centers conducting the most studies of this type in Spain, thanks to the Radiodiagnosis Service and its head, Dr. Luis Concepción, who has advocated for cardiological tests and we have the capacity and technological availability to perform them every day of the week, which is not common," pointed out Dr. Eloísa Feliu, the radiologist responsible for cardiac magnetic resonances, who works alongside radiologists Almudena Ureña and Marina Sirera, as well as technical and nursing staff.

This facilitates, for example, attending to all hospitalized patients requiring a cardiac magnetic resonance within a maximum of 24 or 48 hours, including those from other health departments in the province of Alicante, thus preventing prolonged hospital stays and speeding up patient care.

Additionally, Dr. Feliu emphasizes that "we act as a reference service for much of the province. This, in turn, correlates with other services, as those who refer the most patients to us, Cardiology and Pulmonology, also have reference units in certain pathologies."

The extensive experience of this team of professionals has led them to organize, in collaboration with the Alicante Institute for Health and Biomedical Research (ISABIAL), the '1st Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Course', which was recently held at the Alicante hospital. An advanced training, aimed at more than 30 professionals already dedicated to this type of resonance, both from the Valencian Community and the rest of the national territory, where practical cases that are out of the ordinary and provide greater complexity were presented.

"Radiologists have a kind of hard drive of images in our heads that we store, so it is vital to see many cases throughout our professional lives. These courses usually offer more theoretical talks, but in this course, attendees were able to view more than 100 cases in front of a computer, as if they were at their workstation and had to report them, to then discuss them with them and offer the solution," highlighted Dr. Feliu, the course director.

This is the first edition of a training that is expected to continue and become a reference meeting point in the field.

CMR is an advanced, safe, and highly accurate technique that, without emitting radiation, is especially valuable for the diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring of complex cardiac diseases.

Since it is a sophisticated technique, it requires highly trained personnel; radiologists must have a deep understanding of cardiac pathophysiology, and technicians must be specialized in acquiring high-quality images. "In this regard, we have highly qualified technical and nursing staff, who have been exclusively dedicated to resonance for over 20 years," emphasized Dr. Feliu.

CMR has become the standard of reference for many cardiac pathologies, as it is the technique of choice for calculating ventricular function parameters. For example, it is very useful in decision-making for the implantation of a defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization system (ICD) and also very important in the follow-up of adults with congenital heart diseases.

Resonance adds to the echocardiographic assessment the possibility of tissue characterization. This allows analyzing the composition and properties of cardiac tissue beyond its shape and function, facilitating the detection of myocardial alterations that are not visible with other techniques. In this way, it is possible to identify if the heart presents fibrosis, iron deposits, or fat deposits, among other conditions.