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[[sounds of heart rhythm with easygoing background music]]
[Having a portable machine was something that we always wanted to do]
[[Mike Blakely-Clincal Instructor, Cardiac Diagnostic Center, Ottawa Heart Institute]]
[because it was just such a big deal taking one of these large machines up.]
[The old equipment that was taken up there, it's about the size of a small fridge]
[and weighs about 450 pounds.]
[They have to be picked up by transport truck ]
[and taken to the airport several days before because they have to go on a different flight.]
[Now, you can use your GE Vivid i all day long,]
[put it in a laptop case, put it over your shoulder,]
[and go to the airport and get on the plane]
[An echo machine uses ultrasonic signals ]
[They're similar to the type of machines which are used to look at pregnant women.]
[We can see the structures of the heart.]
[We can see how big the heart is.]
[We can use Doppler--which is the same as Doppler for the weather-- ]
[to look at the blood flow, and we can tell how fast the blood is moving]
[or whether it's leaking into a specific chamber.]
[For a one-diagnostic test, it gives the doctors a wealth of information]
[prior to examining the patient.]
[[Huiji Qu-Echo Cardiovascular Technician, University of Ottawa Heart Institute]]
[Now, how to manage the machine, that's easy,]
[but you cannot pick up the disease.]
[You have to have clinical experience]
[There's one case, the patient complained he fainted,]
[and I did an echo for him this morning.]
[We can see there's a flap in the lumen of the aorta]
[--what we call aortic dissection--]
[that's a very urgent situation for the patient.]
[The patient might die at any time,]
[and nobody knew of it before this test.]
[The patient's relatives were very excited.]
[They said, "Thank you very much for saving my dad!"]
