Picture This: Your Heart in 3-D
New Mapping System Helps Docs Treat More Patients With Arrhythmia
 |
|---|
 |
A mapping system gives doctors three-dimensional views of spaces inside the heart and heart muscle wall (see images above). This allows them to perform ablation treatments on patients with cardiac arrhythmia. |
Thanks to a new three-dimensional mapping system, Inova Loudoun Hospital can now better
treat patients with cardiac
arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat. The Biosense
Carto 3 helps physicians
localize those problem
areas requiring ablation
treatment.
"There are certain areas
you need to stay away from
in the heart," explains Ann
Pollard, RN, Director of Inova
Heart & Vascular Institute
at Loudoun. "3-D mapping
allows you to get extremely
close to those critical areas
that are part of the heart's
electrical functioning with
less risk of damaging them."
The software represents a
step beyond 2-D mapping,
which did not always permit doctors to perform ablation
— a procedure in which an area of tissue that is causing the irregular heartbeat is burned — because of the risks involved. The 3-D software gives physicians a real-time, three-dimensional view of tiny spaces inside the heart and in the heart wall muscle.
"The difference between 2-D and 3-D is that we can get very close to critical areas in the heart that you could not safely do with 2-D mapping," Pollard says. "The other advantage is the cases are quicker. With 2-D mapping, we may spend two hours mapping out the heart. With 3-D, we can cut that time in half."
Unique in Region
|
Inova Loudoun Hospital was given
the mapping system from its sister
hospital, Inova Fairfax Hospital, in
2011. The two hospitals are among
the only ones in the region with
this system. The software is used
with ablation procedures for
arrhythmia. "This is the type of
procedure they do at heart centers
whose names you'll recognize like
Mayo or the Cleveland Clinic,"
notes Pollard. "You can get that
care in Loudoun."
She adds, "It's especially important for us in Loudoun because we have a younger population and younger folks tend to be plagued with these types of arrhythmias that can really affect their life."
Patients who have abnormal heart rhythms near sensitive areas typically have two choices without 3-D mapping: medication, which may have side effects and may not control several types of arrhythmia; and 2-D mapping ablation, which carries a higher risk of needing a pacemaker.
"It's a big deal if you're 40 years old, to be treated and cured by ablation, instead of having to rely on medication or a device," Pollard says.
So far, the hospital has performed about 24 ablation procedures using the new system. Several of the cases have been younger patients in their 50s.
"We couldn't have done the procedure before the 3-D mapping program," Pollard notes. "Sending a patient home cured is just really cool."
Learn more about Inova Heart and Vascular Institute here.
