Dance Your Phd Contest, 2010
Heart disease is now the primary cause of death in the developed world. Diagnosing and treating heart disease is therefore a major health care priority. Recent advances in medical imaging technology means that we can now look at the blood vessels around the heart without needing to insert tubes or wires into the body. Two such techniques are computed tomography coronary angiography, which looks at the blood vessels around the heart, and computed tomography myocardial perfusion, which look at the blood flow to the heart muscle. A CT scan uses x-rays to build-up a three dimensional picture of inside the body. For my Phd I am studying the use of these techniques in patients with heart disease. The title of my thesis is "Computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography: application and clinical validation".
Blues dancing is a very versatile dance with no real "steps". Everything in our video is improvised around the only central move - a simple weight shift. We have a thriving blues dancing community in Edinburgh which I have been involved in for the past two years. But on with the story ...
All good stories start with "Once upon a time ...". My thesis is no exception, so, Once upon a time ....
... a girl and her friend enjoy a walk in the sunshine on one of the hills around Edinburgh. In the distance you can see Arthur's seat, one of two ancient volcanoes within the city. Suddenly, she develops chest pain and collapses.
She is taken to hospital (to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh) and a doctor asks her some questions, examines her and organises some tests. One of these tests is a CT scan (using the Toshiba Aquilion One scanner at the Queens Medical Research Institute in Edinburgh). The dancers circle around each other, just like the x-ray tube and detectors do within the donut-shaped ring of the CT scanner.
The next stage involves me sitting in a darkened room for a considerable amount of time! I analyse the thousands of pictures created by the CT scan. Modern computing power means that this is much quicker and more detailed than the original CT images that were produced by Houndsfield in 1972. However, dancing in the image analysis room certainly makes time pass a little faster!
Heart disease is caused by narrowings ( "plaques") in the blood vessels that surround the heart. In our story we zoom in on some red blood cells that are travelling happily down a blood vessel. However, suddenly they come across an obstacle. The yellow barrier represents the collection of fat cells (also pale yellow!) which cause plaques. The poor red and white blood cells are confused and can't find a way out! In the image analysis room I assess the extent of these plaques and their implication on the blood flow to the heart muscle. It is hoped that computed tomography coronary angiography and computed tomography perfusion scans will enable more rapid and accurate diagnosis of heart disease. Both doctor and patient are very happy with this as they spin around the CT scanner.
And the girl in our story? The CT scan helped diagnose her heart disease so that she could be started on appropriate treatment. She can go back to walking in the hills, and her blood cells are happy too! Just like all good stories, this one ends with our duo walking hand-in-hand into the sunset.
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Ph.D. Blues 2by farhadrachidi4,734 views
@andersingram me? work? not likely!
mmichmog 1 year ago
get back to work shirkers !
suppose that goes for me too ...
andersingram 1 year ago