This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Electromagnetic technology used to implant CRT devices in HF patients
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
An electromagnetic tracking system successfully guided implantation of cardiac resynchronization therapy devices in patients with HF, according to results of a prospective, observational feasibility study.
Sergio Richter, MD, and colleagues used the novel sensor-based system (MediGuide, St. Jude Medical) instead of a traditional fluoroscopy-based implantation procedure to reduce radiation exposure to doctors and patients. Recently published registry data showed the mean total fluoroscopy time in traditional CRT implantation procedures was 22 minutes, according to the study background.
Richter and colleagues, all of the department of electrophysiology, Heart Centre, University of Leipzig, Germany, used the electromagnetic tracking system to implant CRT devices in 15 patients with HF (mean age, 66 years; 53% men) from January to February 2012. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 27%, and 13 patients were receiving a CRT device for the first time. The researchers followed patients for 4 weeks after implantation.
The researchers were able to place the LV lead in all 15 patients without serious adverse events, but 33% had minor intra-procedural complications and the operator had to switch to conventional fluoroscopy in two cases. Total procedure time averaged 116 minutes.
The median total fluoroscopy time was 5.2 minutes. The median fluoroscopy time for LV lead implantation was 2.6 minutes, and no fluoroscopy was needed for coronary sinus cannulation in 12 of the 15 patients.
At 1-month follow-up, there were no serious adverse events and no problems with pacing parameters.
According to information from the study background, the system consists of sensors that are embedded in tools that generate electrical currents once placed within an alternating electromagnetic field and are tracked in real time. A reference sensor is placed on the patient’s chest and it obtains information about the spatial relationship between the patient and the electromagnetic field. The field generator is installed within the fluoroscopy detector of an X-ray system. This enables a 3-D image of the placement of the implantation tools to be projected onto pre-acquired X-ray images, and visualization inside a moving organ is possible. In conventional fluoroscopy, only 2-D intracardiac orientation can be achieved, the researchers wrote.
“This new technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we image inside the body while we perform a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in the future,” Richter said in a press release. Richter and colleagues wrote that future studies are needed to validate their data.
Disclosure: The study was funded by St. Jude Medical. See the full study for a list of the researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts