Department of Cardiovascular Imaging @ Ospedale San Raffaele
The Echocardiography Laboratory at San Raffaele Hospital is a state-of-the-art center, with a tradition of clinical excellence, education and innovation. The teams in the Echocardiography Laboratory perform more than 20,000 outpatient and inpatient echocardiographic studies a year.
Staff in the Echocardiography Laboratory at San Raffaele Hospital has unique expertise and experience in performing echocardiography studies.
All echocardiographic machines are equipped with the most advanced technology. We store all echocardiographic studies digitally and can review them at any of our workstations.
We perform a full spectrum of echocardiographic services with a strong emphasis on echocardiographic research and cutting edge technology including transthoracic echocardiogram, transesophageal echocardiogram (an ultrasound camera inserted into the esophagus), exercise and medication-induced stress studies, as well as contrast echocardiography (by infusion of contrast agent). Staff also provides echocardiographic guidance during complex interventions in the catheterization laboratory (interventional echocardiography), as well as during open-heart surgery (intraoperative echocardiography).
The Echocardiography Laboratory offers imaging tests including 2-D and 3-D echocardiography, as well as complex Doppler studies. We also perform sophisticated quantitative images such as strain and strain rate, echo imaging for structural heart disease including mitral valve, tricuspid and aortic valve diseases for surgical planning/indications or percutaneous treatment including transcatheter aortic valve replacement, mitralClip and transcatheter mitral valve replacement, transcatheter tricuspid valve repair, septal ablation, and left atrial appendage closure, and for cardiomyopathies and cardio-oncology.
The program is run by the leaders in the field of echocardiography and employs a highly trained technical staff including also nurses and echo fellows.
Our excellence in numbers
Notable advanced technological equipment
25 Top Echocardiographic Machines:
- EPIQ CVx/Philips
- EPIQ CVXi/Philips
- Vivid E95/GE Healthcare
- Vivid iQ/GE Healthcare
- Siemens SC2000
- Echonavigator R3
- Syngo TrueFusion
Meet our team
Head physician
Eustachio Agricola
The San Raffaele Research Hospital is a highly specialized multi-disciplinary medical center of world importance, which embodies the integrity of the treatment, clinical research and teaching activities. San Raffaele provides treatment in all existing medical fields, which allows this center to take care of the most complex patient cases. The Hospital is recognized as IRCCS (Scientific Institute for Research and Healthcare) for its research in molecular medicine and innovative treatments application, such as the gene therapy.
The hospital is a multi-specialty center with more than 50 clinical specialties available and with over 1600 beds; it is accredited by the Italian National Health System to provide care to both public and private, Italian and international patients. In 2018 the San Raffaele Hospital performed over 51,000 patient admissions, 72,000 emergency room encounters and delivered over 1.5 million outpatient medical services. It is widely regarded as the most celebrated hospital in the country and among the most reputable medical centers in Europe. San Raffaele’s wards and operating theatres are equipped with the most advanced machines, such as PET, PET/CT, Gamma Knife, Cyber Knife, Rapid Arc, Tomotherapy. San Raffaele’s Radiotherapy Unit was the first place in Europe to install Tomotherapy in 2004. Nowadays this Unit confirms to be one of the most experienced worldwide; it has developed numerous protocols for cancer treatment of the prostate, breast, central nervous system, brain, liver, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and others. The Oncological Board of the Hospital consisting of diagnosticians, clinical oncologists, immunologists, surgeons and radiotherapists, hold weekly meetings to discuss oncological patients’ pathways in a multidisciplinary manner.
Beside its Cancer Center, San Raffaele is well-known for its medical know-how in cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, gastroenterology and gastrointestinal tract surgery, liver surgery, pancreas surgery, transplant medicine, gynecology and obstetrics, urology, dermatology, ophthalmology, immunology, rheumatology and pediatrics.
San Raffaele is a pioneer in the field of gene medicine and treatment of rare immunologic and genetic diseases. San Raffaele Scientific Institute is where the first in the world gene therapy with stem cells was created, named Strimvelis, for patients affected by ADA-SCID syndrome.
The Research at the San Raffaele Hospital focuses on integrating basic, translational and clinical research to provide the most advanced care to the patients. It counts on over 1,500 scientists, working in state-of-the-art facilities covering a surface of 130,000 square meters, and have produced over 1,446 scientific publications in 2018. Research at San Raffaele aims at understanding the mechanisms underlying a variety of important human diseases and at identifying new targets and new therapeutic strategies to treat them.
The San Raffaele Hospital hosts the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, a fully private university with a complete Medical School (including specialty courses and residencies), Nursing School, a Psychology graduate and post-graduate programs, and Allied Health Professions School. The mission of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University is to answer the question "Quid est homo?" in the belief that the human being is a biological, psychological and spiritual unicum. Since 2010 the San Raffaele Hospital also hosts the International MD Program, the only graduate program accredited to license Medical Doctors in both Europe and North America.
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