The EchoNavigator(®)-system is a feasible and safe tool for guidance of interventional procedures in structural heart disease. This innovative technology may improve confidence of interventional cardiologists in targeting and positioning interventional devices in order to increase safety, accuracy, and efficacy of percutaneous interventions in the catheter laboratory.
Percutaneous catheter-based techniques for the treatment of structural heart disease are becoming more complex, and current imaging techniques have limitations: while fluoroscopy gives poor visualisation of cardiac anatomical structures, echocardiography is limited in its ability to detect the position of catheters and devices. The EchoNavigator® (Philips) live image guidance tool is a novel system that integrates real-time echocardiography with fluoroscopic X-ray imaging, optimising the guidance and positioning of devices. Use of the EchoNavigator system facilitates improved understanding of anatomical structures while showing enhanced visualisation of catheter and device movements. Early clinical experience suggests that the technology is feasible and safe, and provides enhanced understanding of the relationship between soft tissue anatomy and catheter devices in structural heart disease. The use of the EchoNavigator system can improve the confidence of interventional cardiologists in the targeting and positioning of devices in percutaneous interventions in structural heart disease, and has the potential to reduce procedural time, reduce the dosage of contrast and radiation and increase safety in the performance of procedural steps.
30 patients clinically suspected of suffering from venous sinus thrombosis were examined by MRT with venous MR angiography (FLASH 2-D). In 8 patients selective arterial angiography was also performed and 5 patients were followed up by MR angiography after an interval of three months. The MRT images and individual MR angiography images were analysed and 3-D reconstruction performed. In 11 patients MR angiography correctly demonstrated venous sinus thrombosis; the most frequently affected were the superior sagittal sinus, the ascending cerebral veins and the transverse sinus. Compared with DSA, magnetic resonance angiography achieved a high degree of accuracy in our patients. It was significantly better in evaluating the basal sinus system whereas thrombosis of individual ascending veins was better shown by DSA. In summary, primary use of MRT and MR angiography is recommended for the diagnosis of venous sinus thrombosis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.