New technique to treat cardiac arrhythmias
MRI image of a heart (photo: Wolfgang Bauer)
For the first time anywhere in the world, medics from Würzburg University Hospital have managed to relieve a patient of his heartbeat irregularities using a new technique. The new procedure is very precise and gentler on sufferers.
Many people suffer from a heartbeat that is irregular and too fast. These arrhythmias cause stress to patients and may occasionally be life-threatening. They are frequently triggered by a few heart cells not working properly, throwing the conduction of impulses in the heart muscle out of step.
Nothing could be achieved without x-rays
A treatment regularly used today is therefore focused on destroying these troublemakers in the heart muscle with a catheter that heats up at the tip. The catheter is usually controlled with the help of an x-ray device. Unfortunately, this only provides shadowy images of the heart and its make-up. Added to this is the fact that x-rays pose a certain risk to both the patient and the operator.
Far more precise images of the heart and its structures are produced by magnetic resonance imaging. This also has the advantage of working with a magnetic field, so the patient is not exposed to any radiation.
New catheters developed
However, normal heart catheters that are used to treat cardiac arrhythmias are not compatible with MRI. There are several reasons for this: the powerful magnets in the scanner attract the magnetic components of the catheter, making it unusable. What is more, the magnetic fields cause currents in the catheter that may then lead to undesirable tissue damage. Conversely, standard catheters disturb the imaging of an MRI scanner.
Scientists around the world have therefore been conducting intensive research into the development of special catheters to enable the treatment of arrhythmias with an MRI scanner. In one project funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation, an interdisciplinary team consisting of medics, technicians, physicists, and engineers, has succeeded in developing the first such catheter for use on humans.
An interdisciplinary team
The project involved scientists from Würzburg University Hospital and the University of Würzburg, the MRB in Bavaria, the Erwin Hahn Institute in Essen, the University of Erlangen, and the company Biotronik/Vascomed. The rapid imaging of the catheters was developed in collaboration with the Institute for X-ray Diagnostics at Würzburg University Hospital.
This catheter has now passed its first test on humans: cardiologists Oliver Ritter, Peter Nordbeck, and Wolfgang Bauer as well as staff of the Institute for X-ray Diagnostics have successfully used it on a patient for the very first time.
Opinions about the new technique
Oliver Ritter, senior physician at the University of Würzburg’s Department of Medicine I, controlled the catheter in the patient and was very enthusiastic about the new technique. He sees the future for this procedure mainly in the treatment of complex atrial rhythm disorders (atrial fibrillation) or arrhythmias arising in the ventricle. Meinrad Beer, senior physician at the Institute for X-ray Diagnostics, sees the technique as “an important new application for clinical MR tomography”.
Wolfgang Bauer, head of the Cardiac Imaging and Biophysics working group at the University of Würzburg, who has been performing research in the field of electrotherapy and MRI for years, sees this as a “paradigm shift in electrophysiology”.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Dr. Wolfgang Rudolf Bauer, T: +49 (0)931 201-39181, e-mail: 
w.bauer@medizin.uni-wuerzburg.de
Prof. Dr. Meinrad Beer, T: +49 (0)931 201-34883, e-mail: beer@roentgen.uni-wuerzburg.de
Prof. Dr. Oliver Ritter, T: +49 (0)931 201-39033, e-mail: Ritter_O@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
22.07.2011, 16:00 Uhr