Zion Tsz Ho Tse1, Charles L. Dumoulin2, Ronald Watkins3, Israel Byrd4, Jeffrey Schweitzer4, Raymond Y. Kwong5, Gregory F. Michaud5, William G. Stevenson5, Ehud J. Schmidt1
1Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 2Radiology, Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center; 3Radiology, Stanford University; 4Atrial Fibrillation Division, St Jude Medical, Inc.; 5Cardiology, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School
An MRI-compatible St Jude Medical EnSite NavX (ESN) voltage-based navigational system was used for Electro-Anatomic-Mapping (EAM) and catheter tracking during MR imaging. The system also allowed Electro-Physiological (EP) procedures to be performed inside and outside MRI. The ESN was equipped with an electronic blanking circuit to block ESN tracking signals during gradient-ramps-&-radiofrequency transmission (GR&RF). EP catheters with MR-tracking coils and ESN tracking electrodes were used. The ESN was validated in a cardiac phantom and three swine models with EAM and simultaneous imaging. The system showed <6mm catheter positional error, <1oC temperature rise, and <5% image quality reduction.