Cardiologists Use Magnetic Navigation to Guide Heart Catheter Procedures

Loyola University Hospital has become the first Chicago-area hospital to treat heart problems with a magnetically guided catheter that's much more precise than manual catheters - and easier on the heart.

The Gentle Touch™ catheter has a metal tip. It is guided by two computer-controlled magnets, one on each side of the patient.

The magnetically guided catheter can be used to treat irregular heart beats, to open clogged arteries and to place electrical leads for certain types of pacemakers. The $1.5 million system is made by Stereotaxis, Inc.

"It allows you to go exactly where you want to go in the heart, with millimeter accuracy," said Dr. David Wilber, director of Loyola's Cardiovascular Institute and Division of Cardiology.

The system makes a skilled cardiologist even better, said Dr. Joseph Akar, an interventional cardiologist at Loyola who specializes in the treatment of irregular heartbeats. "I think we will get more consistent results," Akar said. "It extends the physician's range of skills." Akar is an assistant professor in the department of cardiology at Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine.

One of the first patients Akar treated with the new system is Susan Surges, 54, of Minooka, Ill. Before her surgery, Surges' heart would occasionally begin beating as fast as 200 times a minute. "It would feel like it was pounding out of my body," she said. "It would hit without warning, and it was scary." Since her treatment, however, Surges has had no further episodes of the condition, called supraventricular tachycardia.

A catheter is a thin tube that typically is inserted in an artery in the groin and guided up to the heart. The standard manual catheter is stiff but flexible. The cardiologist guides it by gently pushing, pulling, twisting and turning. Manipulating a manual catheter is somewhat like writing with a pencil by holding the eraser end.

In rare cases, a stiff catheter can puncture a hole in the heart. While the hole almost always will heal by itself, the cardiologist has to end the procedure. And in a small minority of such cases, surgery is required to repair the hole. By contrast, the magnetically guided catheter is soft and flexible, so it's gentler on the heart.

The new catheter is guided by magnets mounted on pivoting arms on either side of the patient. As the magnets pivot, the magnetic field changes, pulling the catheter in the desired direction.

In traditional systems, the cardiologist stands over the patient while manipulating the catheter. In the new system, the cardiologist sits in a control room next to the operating room. On a computer screen, the cardiologist maps out the catheter's next move; the computer executes the move by adjusting the magnetic field.

"Instead of controlling the catheter by hand, you control it by computer," Wilber said.