Week 4 - Chia-Wei Yeh

This is fourth week of summer immersion. One of interesting thing I would like to share is how to interpret medical image. On Friday's weekly meeting, Dr. Prince shared several case study with us, and he shared his own step to interpret medical image. First thing is identifying which modality or technology is on the image. There will be ultrasound image (echo), magnetic resonance image (MRI), x-ray, computed tomography (CT or CTA) scan, and positron emission tomography (PET) scan. Each technology has it own advantage on imaging different part of body. For example, MRI is suitable to image soft tissue, and x-ray is useful to image hard tissue. The next step is figuring out what part of body is on the image. The final step is trying to point out which part is normal. Once you read more images and gain experience, you will be able to tell what is abnormal on the image. Actually, interpreting medical image is a crucial tool to help physician understanding what is wrong and what is the next step should they do. Dr. Prince shared a series of CT scan of a patient with "huge" aneurysm in descending aorta. The CT scan demonstrated the descending aorta was leaky, and abdominal cavity was full of blood. Hopefully the patient could be getting better soon.

I also saw another catheterizations surgery this week. The purpose of the surgery is using electrode to ablate heart tissue in right atrium to block abnormal electrical signal conduction in heart, which results in arrhythmia. The physician used a 8 points electrode through catheter to detect the EKG in different part of right atrium, and then using 3D mapping system to create voltage based map of right atrium. By observing in the 3D voltage mapping, physician can determine which part of heart tissue should be ablated to block abnormal electrical signal conduction, as shown in the following picture. 

(A) 3D mapping system helping physician to determine where is the area to ablate. (B) Nathaniel and I were observing catheterization surgery.

Last big thing in this week was July 4th! I went to my friend's place for rooftop BBQ at Long Island City. Although the fireworks were far from us, everything was great and chill. Happy Independence Day to everyone!