St Bartholomew’s Hospital
A clearer picture for patients needing heart procedures
People with heart problems are set to benefit from new technology being introduced at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. The 3D intracardiac echocardiography – 3D ICE – is a cutting-edge scanner that provides clear, real-time heart imaging. We supported Barts Charity* with £68,000 to help bring this revolutionary technology to patients in East London.
For some people who have severe problems with a valve in their heart, major surgery would be too risky. Instead, they may be offered a less invasive procedure guided by ultrasound images. However, in as many as half of those cases, the images are not clear enough, making the procedure longer, riskier, or even impossible.
That’s where the 3D ICE comes in. Rather than scanning from outside the heart, it uses a tiny ultrasound probe inserted through a vein, giving doctors clearer, real-time images of the heart to guide essential valve repairs. As a result, the hospital hopes to see more patients qualifying for heart valve repair, fewer cancelled procedures and shorter hospital stays.
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- Barts Heart Centre treats more cardiac patients than any other UK hospital, with over 85,000 people cared for in 2024-25 alone.
- In 25-30% of ‘tricuspid TEER’ (heart valve repair) cases, the imaging used isn’t good enough – 3D ICE directly addresses this gap.
- If 3D ICE is adopted nationally, around 200 to 300 patients a year could benefit.
Better outcomes for patients
The 3D ICE technology will also help diagnose serious heart infections, which can be difficult to detect using standard scans. With 3D ICE’s improved accuracy, infections could be spotted earlier, allowing for timely and potentially life-enhancing treatment.
St Bartholomew’s Hospital will collect vital data from the new technology and help build the case for adopting 3D ICE across the NHS.
“3D ICE will immediately widen access to life-improving tricuspid [heart valve] interventions at Barts and accelerate precise diagnosis in our most complex infective endocarditis [heart lining inflammation] cases. By overcoming the well-recognised imaging limitations of TOE [ultrasound imaging through the oesophagus], we can treat more patients safely, shorten procedures, and make faster, better-informed clinical decisions to improve the quality of life of our patients.”
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