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GE Provides ECG to Chinese Olympic Committee to Diagnose Cardiac Fitness of Athletes

by Barbara Kram, Editor | June 23, 2008
GE Healthcare provides
ECG technologies to
the Chinese Olympic Committee
Beijing, CHINA -- GE Healthcare will provide electrocardiogram technologies (ECG) to the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC). Such technologies will be used for diagnosing cardiac fitness of competing Chinese athletes to help ensure they achieve optimum performance during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Technologies provided to the COC will include two GE Healthcare MAC 5500 resting ECG, one Dash 4000 bed-side monitor and one CASE STRESS ECG (including the T2100 treadmill). GE Healthcare's ECG products are designed to help physicians in emerging markets, whether they work in a hospital setting or in a private practice, to better predict and diagnose patients at risk of heart disease.

Through training and competition, elite athletes put an enormous amount of stress on their hearts every day. The heart, like any other muscle, undergoes changes due to vigorous exercise. Performing regular ECGs on Olympic athletes is an easy, non-invasive way to measure the heart's beat, establish a baseline and assist physicians in detecting any possible abnormalities. While young, fit athletes are typically low-risk of having heart disease; however, there have been a number of high profile incidents of undetected cardiovascular disease amongst young athletes culminating into tragedies that might have been avoided.

Located at the Beijing Sports Medicine Hospital, GE Healthcare's electrocardiogram technologies will be used by clinicians for routine athlete medical examinations of China's National teams. Early diagnosis of an athlete's cardiac function allows clinicians to develop more adaptive training programs for each athlete and in turn prepare them in the best possible way for reaching gold medal.

"It is a great honor to be equipped with GE Healthcare leading ECG technologies as our clinicians will now be able to store and retrieve data more efficiently (even remotely) for every athlete, and in turn make faster, more confident assessments to provide better care. We greatly appreciate GE's commitment towards making the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games a success. The Chinese sports delegation is sure to make outstanding achievements and maintain a strong mental outlook during the Olympics in response to GE's support." says Jilong Ma, Director General, Marketing Commission of Chinese Olympic Committee.

GE Healthcare's MAC 5500 resting ECG is easy-to-use and comes with a suite of arrhythmia detection and ECG cardiovascular analysis and interpretation programs that allow clinicians to address a wider range of cardiac disease management needs.