News/PR
Bay Medical Offers New Procedure for Heart Arrhythmias
November 5, 2007
Contact:
Christa Dean Hild
850-747-6542
CARTO™ XP Navigation System offers hi-tech breakthrough in diagnosis and treatment.
Panama City, Florida: Bay Medical today announced that it is now performing a breakthrough procedure for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias or abnormal heart rhythm. Cardiac electrophysiologists Dr. Hari Baddigam and Dr. Judson Colley of Cardiology Associates performed the first procedures in our area in September.
Arrhythmias are caused by problems in the heart's "electrical system" and may result in a disturbance of heart rate, rhythm or both. The condition affects over 4 million people in the United States today. The exact location of an arrhythmia is sometimes hard to identify and difficult to treat. Conventional treatment options include lifelong antiarrhythmic drugs, surgically implanted pacemakers or intracardiac defibrillators, and catheter ablation. Catheter ablation is the only option that is both curative and minimally invasive. However, conventional catheter ablation techniques, which use 2D fluoroscopy and intracardiac electrograms, have limitations in their ability to precisely identify the location of the problem area and the relative location of the treatment catheter within the heart.
The CARTO™ XP Navigation System, recently purchased by Bay Medical, uses breakthrough technology that solves this problem with speed and efficiency. Much like a global positioning satellite (GPS) system, the CARTO™ XP System detects the precise position of a special catheter that is temporarily inserted into the heart. This catheter transmits electrical data about the patient's heart to a system that creates a color-coded three-dimensional map showing the electrical "roadways" that control the heartbeat. The easy-to-read maps assist the physician in making a precise diagnosis. Once the problem area is located, the CARTO™ XP System can guide a special treatment catheter using radiofrequency energy back to the problem origination point where corrective steps can be taken.
For more information please contact Christa Hild at 747-6542.