New technology is letting cardiologists explore and treat areas of the heart never before possible. This holds especially true in treating heart rhythm disturbances and heart disease.
These surgeries require placing catheters and leads in very precise locations in the heart that can be very difficult to reach. Traditionally, doctors have used catheters, or wires, with a carefully placed bend in them, which are then twisted and moved into the right spot. In addition to getting to the right locations, the tool has to be held in that location. The beating heart can make that an enormous challenge.
In even the recent past, these procedures often required expertise that went beyond the capability of most human beings. All that is changing now, according to Dr. Brian Olshansky from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
"We are now approaching a time when we can do much more sophisticated types of procedures and can cure rhythm problems we never thought we could in the past," he said.
 |  |
 | |  |
| | | | | | | |
Magnetic hearts
Magnetically guided catheters increases the accuracy of heart procedures.
 
| | |
| | | | | |
|
This is becoming possible, in part, thanks to a new technology called Stereotaxis. Stereotaxis uses two magnets the size of jet engines to guide a magnetically-tipped catheter.
"Stereotaxis offers the opportunity to direct catheters that were previously not passable," Olshansky said.
As the magnets move, the catheter inside the heart moves to within millimeters of where it needs to be. Once it's where it needs to go, the magnetic pull outside the body pulls the catheter up against the wall of the heart with different degrees of force.
The Stereotaxis technology was originally developed for neurosurgical approaches, but Olshansky predicts future uses are going to be mainly in the area of cardiology.
For people with heart rhythm problems, Stereotaxis can be used for ablation procedures, where specific areas of heart muscle are burned with the tip of a catheter. Another treatment use is to repair congestive heart failure. In this procedure, leads are placed in specific blood vessels around the heart and devices are implanted.
Olshansky predicts it can also be used in the area of angioplasty and stent placement to open clogged arteries.
"The Stereotaxis equipment has been used here to help place wires across very tight blockages in blood vessels – so tight that we would normally not be able to get across those blockages, and yet, with the Stereotaxis system the wires can be steered to go across very, very tight obstructions so that those blood vessels can be opened," he said.
In the future, Olshansky also predicts the technology can be used to steer equipment into the lungs to make diagnoses that would not otherwise be possible.
The Stereotaxis system was developed by Dr. Matthew Howard of the University of Iowa. The system is being used at the University of Iowa as well as Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
