St. Vincent’s Medical Center has opened a $3.2 million, state-of-the-art electrophysiology lab for treating heart rhythm disorders, or arrhythmias. The centerpiece of the lab is an advanced X-ray system that provides outstanding image quality with less distortion than older imaging technologies, exposes the patient to less radiation during procedures than some other systems, and importantly, improves patient safety during procedures.
The equipment — including the Philips Allura Xper FD10/10 X-ray system — is housed in the medical center’s new biplane electrophysiology (EP) lab. Biplane is the term used to describe the system’s ability to capture and display real-time images of a patient’s heart in two views or planes simultaneously.
This feature gives physicians the ability to position thin, flexible wires, called catheters, into the heart under X-ray guidance without having to continually move a camera around to obtain multiple views. X-ray guidance is necessary to ensure the catheter is not damaging sensitive structures as it’s threaded into the heart and that it is precisely placed for diagnostic or treatment purposes.
“Patients with complex arrhythmias are going to be much better served in a biplane lab than in a single plane lab,” said St. Vincent’s electrophysiologist Dr. Anthony Magnano. “The biggest thing is improved safety, because when you look at a catheter in one projection, you can tell that it’s pointing up or down or right or left, but you can’t tell that it’s coming forward at you or backward. That’s a really critical dimension to be able to know about, and the second view gives you that extra dimension.”
Having two simultaneous views of the heart without having to reposition a lone camera has an additional advantage for patients. “The speed with which you’re going to be able to do the procedure is greatly enhanced,” said St. Vincent’s electrophysiologist Dr. Timothy Walsh. “Many studies have shown that complication rates are in part — not totally, but in part — related to the length of time the patient is in the lab. The longer the patient is in the laboratory, statistically the more likely there is to be a problem with that procedure. So by cutting down the procedure time, this lab offers the possibility of lower complications.”
Electrophysiologists are physicians who specialize in treating arrhythmias. Millions of people have harmless episodes of arrhythmia at some point in life. However, arrhythmias can lead to significant symptoms, and some may be serious or even fatal. In many cases, medications are effective in suppressing arrhythmias. To treat serious arrhythmias, an electrophysiologist, working in an EP lab, may implant a pacemaker, an implantable cardioverter defibrillator or perform a minimally invasive procedure called cardiac ablation. St. Vincent’s electrophysiologists treat about 1,500 patients each year.