Massachusetts General Hospital has begun performing digitally controlled catheter-based interventions using Siemens' Axiom Artis dFC Magnetic Navigation. The system integrates Siemens' flat-detector fluoroscopic imaging system, the Artis dFC, with Stereotaxis' Niobe Magnetic Navigation System to navigate catheters and guidewires to target sites in the heart and coronary vasculature. Computer-controlled permanent magnets, external to the body, orient the magnetic tip of specially designed catheters and guidewires. The system promises to increase efficiency, enhance productivity, and help clinicians improve the ease and accuracy of catheter-based procedures.
