MR-guided treatment for life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia

"This new technology was originally developed for treating cancer," explains Prof. Matthias Guckenberger, Director of the Department of Radiation Oncology. "In a collaborative project between the Department of Cardiology, the Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, and the Department of Radiation Oncology, the MR Linac technology has now been used at UHZ for the first time for radio ablation to treat a patient with recurring, life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia." In this procedure, the area of the heart muscle responsible for the arrhythmia is targeted with radiation.

The patient, with a severe heart condition, had already undergone various intensive but unsuccessful treatments before. "Despite intensive drug therapy and repeated minimally invasive and surgical catheter ablations, the arrhythmia could not be prevented. Due to the complexity of the arrhythmia and the preliminary interventions, further invasive procedures were not advisable. We needed a new, innovative approach for this patient," explains Dr. Ardan Saguner, attending physician at the Department of Cardiology. The MR Linac technology was required for radio ablation to be safely performed on this patient with the necessary precision. This radio ablation stopped the life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia, and the patient has since been discharged with no signs of an irregular heartbeat.