In a proof of concept study,
scientists at Johns Hopkins report they have successfully performed 3D
personalized virtual simulations of the heart to accurately identify where
cardiac specialists should electrically destroy cardiac tissue to stop potentially
fatal irregular and rapid heartbeats in patients with scarring in the heart.
The retrospective analysis of 21 patients and prospective study of five
patients with ventricular tachycardia, the researchers say, demonstrate that 3D
simulation-guided procedures are worthy of expanded clinical trials.
Among the experiments in the
current study, researchers used MRI images to create personalized heart models
of 21 people who previously had successful cardiac ablation procedures for
infarct-related ventricular tachycardia at The Johns Hopkins Hospital between
2006 and 2017. The research team demonstrated the feasibility of integrating a
computer-simulated prediction into the clinical routine. The predicted set of
ablation targets is imported into the mapping system before the patient's
procedure so that the ablation catheter is navigated directly to the predicted
targets.
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