Siemens expands angiography systems with catheter navigation
technology
31 August 2011
Siemens Healthcare has integrated the navigation technology
MediGuide from St Jude Medical into its Artis zee angiography systems.
By means of magnetic targeting, MediGuide
locates the catheter during
cardiac interventions and projects its precise position in realtime on a
previously acquired fluoroscopy image of the patient.
This technology has great
potential to save radiation dose during
long procedures as the patient does not need to be scanned
repeatedly with the angiography system in order to track the
catheter.
Navigation with the MediGuide Technology from St Jude Medical
utilizes a special electromagnetic tracking procedure to determine
the position of medical devices during minimally invasive
interventions. Siemens is the first manufacturer to integrate
MediGuide Technology into its Artis zee systems to provide improved
navigation of catheters during electrophysiology procedures without
having to subject the patient to continuous fluoroscopy.
During the intervention, a miniaturized sensor integrated into
the catheter can be located by receiving electromagnetic positioning
signals from the MediGuide transmitters, which are incorporated into
the detector housing of the Artis zee system. The MediGuide
Technology then calculates the respective position and orientation
of the catheter and displays it in real-time on fluoroscopic images
of the patient that were recorded earlier. To display the catheter’s
position precisely, the technology also compensates for patient
movement caused by respiration and heart motion.
The MediGuide Technology may provide significant benefits
especially during longer interventions or examinations in the cath
lab. The cardiologist no longer has to take fluoroscopic images of
the
patient each time the catheter is re-positioned, as is the
case with current technology. As a result, less radiation and less
contrast agent use is expected.
“With the MediGuide Technology, we have expanded our CARE
dose-reduction initiative with a critical functionality,” said Dr.
Heinrich Kolem, Head of the Angiography & Interventional X-ray
business unit at Siemens Healthcare. “We are convinced that our
customers will achieve better clinical results, especially during
complex
procedures, and at the same time will be able to save
both dose and time.”
The Heart Center Leipzig, Germany, has already performed the
first interventions with Artis zee and the MediGuide Technology.
“The low-radiation, precise localization of the catheter tip onto
the pre-recorded fluoroscopy image is a most impressive function,
because the system is able to compensate the motion from heart beat
and breathing,” said Professor Dr. Gerhard Hindricks, Director of
the Rhythmology Department.
“For my team and me, this is clearly the future in
electrophysiology.” Dr. Christopher Piorkowski, MediGuide Project
Team Leader at the Heart Center Leipzig, added: “Our clinical
experience now includes more than 50 patients. The technology will
have a significant impact in the field of catheter ablation, but
also for the placement of left ventricular leads for cardiac
resynchronization.”