Irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmias, can often be symptoms of serious heart conditions, like atrial fibrillation, which can lead to heart attacks or strokes.
Now, doctors at UVA Health are using a new imaging technique to better treat those irregular beats. It’s called MRI-guided electrophysiology ablation.
A surgeon will use a catheter to place an electrical wire in the heart and use electricity to restore a normal rhythm.
The addition of MRI imaging during the ablation gives the surgeon a more detailed, real-time look at the heart, making the procedure more effective.
“You can actually see all these details of the heart muscle in real time and then really personalize your treatments and make them very accurate, because you can see where the catheter is relative to all these structures,” said Dr. Bilchick.
Dr. Bilchick is only the second doctor in the United States to perform this procedure as part of a clinical trial.