Philips, King’s College London and University College London (UCL) have formed a consortium to develop advanced imaging solutions for the treatment of heart arrhythmias.
Due to increasing life expectancy and lifestyle trends, incidents of cardiac arrhythmia, where the heatbeat is irregular of faster or slower than normal, are increasing. Traditionally, the disease is treated by long-term drug therapy, which is both expensive and can have undesirable side effects. However, there is an increasing trend towards restoring the heart’s natural rhythm using X-ray fluoroscopy. The research will seek to improve these procedures by reducing clinical procedure time, improving success rates and reducing the X-ray radiation dose to the patient, and to the staff treating them.
The main objective of the project, called the Electrophysiology Platform for Image-Guided Arrhythmia Management (EPIGRAM) is to develop a real-time, integrated representation of the anatomical, functional and electrical information to give clinicians a comprehensive view of the heart, facilitating more efficient and effective treatment while reducing side effects. The consortium will seek to develop a solution that combines information from a range of imaging modalities, providing accurate 3D information that compensates for both cardiac and respiratory motion.
The project is expected to run for three years. The imaging modalities being researched for inclusion in the system are X-ray fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance, computed tomography, ultrasound and cardiac signal recording.
