Siemens, SurgiVision to develop MRI-guided cardiac EP system

Siemens Healthcare and SurgiVision of Irvine, Calif., have formed an agreement for the co-development and commercialization of a real-time MRI-guided cardiac electrophysiology (EP) system.

The companies said they are collaborating with University of Utah Health Care to bring to the clinic a fully integrated EP-MRI system to improve conventional catheter-based cardiac procedures.

"We are refining image-based cardiac ablation procedures using MRI, which our research indicates has the potential to improve the accuracy of the ablation, prevent complications and decrease the number of repeat procedures," said Nassir F. Marrouche, MD, electrophysiologist and director of the University of Utah’s atrial fibrillation program.

In May, University Health Care also opened an integrated EP-MRI clinical and research lab, which provides real-time delayed enhancement MRI for treating atrial fibrillation patients.

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