Siemens Healthcare has integrated St. Jude Medical‘s MediGuide navigation technology into its Artis zee angiography systems. The Artis zee family is Siemens’ cutting edge line of interventional radiology and cardiology imaging devices.
MediGuide uses magnetic targeting to locate the catheter and project its position on previously recorded fluoroscopy images. This obviates the need for many repeated scans to track the catheter during procedures, reducing radiation dose and contrast agent volume.
From the press release:
Navigation with the MediGuide Technology from St. Jude Medical utilizes a special electromagnetic tracking procedure to determine the position of medical devices during minimally-invasive interventions. Siemens is the first manufacturer to integrate MediGuide Technology into its Artis zee systems to provide improved navigation of catheters during electrophysiology procedures without having to subject the patient to continuous fluoroscopy. During the intervention, a miniaturized sensor integrated into the catheter can be located by receiving electromagnetic positioning signals from the MediGuide transmitters, which are incorporated into the detector housing of the Artis zee system. The MediGuide Technology then calculates the respective position and orientation of the catheter and displays it in real-time on fluoroscopic images of the patient that were recorded earlier. To display the catheter’s position precisely, the technology also compensates for patient movement caused by respiration and heart motion.
Press release: Less radiation during catheter interventions…
Flashbacks: Artis zee from Siemens…; Medical Position System (MPS) from MediGuide: GPS for Cath…
