Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a device capable of capturing real time three dimensional images from inside a patient’s heart, arteries, or blood vessels.

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a device capable of capturing real time three dimensional images from inside a patient’s heart, arteries, or blood vessels.

The device is based on a catheter using a single silicon chip that is only one and a half millimeters across, with a hole in the center for a guiding wire.

It is reportedly more effective than a cross sectional ultrasound in providing images from inside the patient’s body using CMOS technology that is found in cell phone cameras and webcams.

F. Levent Degertekin, a professor from the Georgia Institute of Technology is quoted as saying: “This will give cardiologists the equivalent of a flashlight so they can see blockages ahead of them in occluded arteries. It has the potential for reducing the amount of surgery that must be done to clear these vessels.”

The researchers are still in development stages with the prototype, but they have plans to do further testing on animals before it can be released for use on humans.