CZECH REPUBLIC-HEALTH/MAGNETECS Czech physicians use new magnetic guidance system to treat cardiac arrhythmia

Record ID: 335678

  • Title: CZECH REPUBLIC-HEALTH/MAGNETECS Czech physicians use new magnetic guidance system to treat cardiac arrhythmia
  • Date: 13th February 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT, JAN PETRU, SAYING: "We are creating a 3D image and in this 3D image we will be moving the catheters exactly into the places we need."
  • Embargoed: 28th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Czech Republic
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1ZGTPNBUI5JV0EAI6GKACCG44
  • Story Text: When Jiri Tichy walks his dog through the forests and down the hills near Ceska Lipa in North Bohemia, there are no signs of the cardiac arrhythmia to be noticed he suffered from for ten years.
    Tichy was brought back into life by electro shocks two times and undertook four catheter implants already. Unfortunately, they were never successful enough.
    Last week the 64-year old became the first Czech patient treated using so called "magnetic navigation", which allows to guide the catheter into the exact places inside his heart to provide catheter ablation, which is the process of destroying abnormal tissue in the heart responsible for arrhythmia.
    "Just one week after the surgery I can conquer hills and I feel great, younger," Tichy described his condition, "I am 64 years old now and now I feel like 40. After ten years of trudging and walking even small hillocks I can do it easily, it is superb." His heart condition stopped Tichy for many years from pursuing some of his interests, not any more. "I am going to drive my motorbike again. Just today I am going to buy my second dog. We will walk through the forests together or just go fishing," he said.
    Catheterization ablation is a method destined for the treatment of heart arrhythmia. It uses catheters, thin tubes, which are led into the heart via vessels. The physician leads the catheter inside the place in the heart, where the arrhythmia comes from, and there uses a radio frequency stream.
    The physicians of the Na Homolce Hospital Cardiologic Department in Prague used the robotic Catheter Guidance Control and Imaging (CGCI) system for the first time on Tichy. CGCI works on the principals of electromagnetic navigation and the 3D display of catheter inside the patient's body.
    The physicians around Petr Neuzil during surgery at first led the catheterization tools through the vessels inside the heart. Then they had to "take up the points" of the affected heart areas to work out the electro-anatomical map.
    "We are creating a 3D image and in this 3D image we will be moving the catheters exactly into the places we need," assistant physician Jan Petru explained.
    The physician uses two joysticks - one leads the tool inside, the other manages the magnetized catheters' electromagnetic field. The CGCI made by Magnetecs uses eight electromagnets to manage the magnetized catheter inside the patients' heart. This allows executing more a precise and exact catheter ablation of heart arrhythmia.
    "When I can really move the catheter to the certain spot which I believe is the cause of the arrhythmia or the hot spot of everything bad and apply, in this case, radio frequency energy or effective energy, then I believe I can be very effective because I have constant touch, contact with the left arterial wall (or other bodies). So it means I have constant contact and also I can limit, improve the strength of the magnetic field, so I can increase the force," Neuzil described the new procedure.
    The Na Homolce Hospital is the biggest Czech institution for arrhythmia treatment. Their first catheterization centre was opened in 2007, where almost thousand patients were treated with catheter ablations in 2014. The new CGCI system allows the physicians to carry out the minimal-invasive surgery precisely and control the surgical tools in highly dynamic or previously inaccessible environments.
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