Image Guided Interventions for Better Cardiac Treatment
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust & King's College London
At Guy's and St Thomas' Department of Cardiology in London, UK, cardiologists are working alongside bioengineers to understand how to better integrate imaging into a variety of interventions are, and improve outcomes by being able to predict and model what interventions will work on a given patient.
In patients with atrial fibrillation, we are investigating the role of atrial structure in arrhythmogenesis. Using CT to assess atrial wall thickness and cardiac MRI to assess atrial fibrosis, shape and function, we seek to understand the limits of these techniques and how atrial structure and function can predict treatment response in advance of exposing patients to potentially futile treatments.
By modelling patients hearts we can understand better why CRT works in some cases and not in others, allowing us to better select patients likely to respond, where best to place an LV lead to get that response and how best to get to that site.
Cardiac MRI is the ideal way to assess ventricular scar - through the use of MR-compatible tools to facilitate catheter intervention within the MR environment - cardiologists can use an image-guided approach to more accurately perform the intervention in much less time.
www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/our-services/cardiovascular