Cardiovascular Ultrasound Lab
Nepean Intensive Care is extremely fortunate in that it has a modern and very motivated Cardiovascular Ultrasound Laboratory situated within the Intensive Care complex itself. The laboratory provides emergency and routine tests for the ICU inpatients as well as providing cardiac and vascular ultrasound services to the inpatients of the Nepean, Governor Phillip, Katoomba, Springwood, Hawkesbury, Blacktown and Mt Druitt Hospitals and to referring doctors in the district.
Cardiac Investigations
- Transthoracic Echocardiogram
- Transoesophageal Echocardiogram
- Stress Echocardiogram (Exercise and Pharmacological)
- Electrocardiograph
Vascular Investigations
- Arterial Duplex Scan
- Venous Duplex Scan
- Carotid Duplex Scan
Equipment
Equipment available to the Laboratory includes the Philips iE33, Philips HDI 5000, GE Vivid 7, GE Vivid 7 Dimension which are capable of providing the full range of non-invasive cardiac and vascular studies as well as Transoesophageal Echocardiograms. GE Vivid 7 is also used for Dobutamine Stress Echocardiograms, Exercise Stress Echocardiograms and research purposes. Two mobile machines, Siemens Cypress and GE Vivid I are used for urgent mobile Echocardiograms and mobile clinics at Hawkesbury and Springwood Hospitals.
Staffing
There is a small team of varied staff that make up the Cardiovascular Ultrasound Laboratory. The medical staff are headed by Professor McLean and include Dr Don Stewart, Dr Ian Seppelt, Dr Ray Parkin and Dr Roger Hall. The Echo team comprises Iris Ting (Clinical Nurse Consultant), Robyn Biddlecombe (Echocardiographer), Kay Race (Echocardiographer) and Louise Smith (Trainee Nurse Echocardiographer). The Vascular work is performed by Helen Chow (Sonographer) and Richard Huang (Sonographer). Research is coordinated by Dr Stephen J. Huang. Secretarial support is provided by Mrs Deanna Mckay.
Research
The Cardiovascular Ultrasound Laboratory, apart from providing clinical assessment services, also strives to provide the best and most up-to-date methods of cardiovascular assessment. The only way of making this possible is through our ongoing quality control type as well as exploratory type research. In recent years we have, in conjunction with the ICU research unit, established various methods for assessing a variety of conditions of the heart. Some of the works have been published in peer reviewed journals.