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Hartford Hospital First in U.S. To Use New 3D Mapping Technology For Cardiac Procedures

July 27, 2021

In mid-July, cardiac electrophysiologist Dr. Aneesh Tolat, Director of VT Ablation at Hartford HealthCare’s Heart & Vascular Institute at Hartford Hospital, became the first in the United States in a non-research environment to use the inHEART technology as part of a patient’s procedure.

InHEART’s technology generates a 3D map of the patient heart from medical images (CT, MRI), which is then used to guide the catheter during an ablation.

The 3D map contains a highly detailed anatomy including structural substrates for both ventricles and atria.

The patient needed a ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation. Ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation uses cold or heat energy to create tiny scars in your heart to block abnormal signals that cause a rapid, erratic heartbeat. Ventricular tachycardia occurs when the heart’s electrical signals cause your lower heart chambers (ventricles) to beat too quickly.

By having the 3D map of the heart to use as a guide for inserting the catheter into his left ventricle, Tolat said the procedure was safer, more efficient, and quicker.

“The inHEART scan gave us a vast amount of information we wouldn’t have otherwise had,” he said. “By combining the scan with our real-time mapping (during the procedure), we were able to see the areas we knew we needed to stay away from much more clearly.”

After the patient has the cardiac CT scan, the image is sent via the cloud to inHEART to be processed by case analysts using proprietary technology. The technology was developed from research outcomes of top-tier institutes in cardiac electrophysiology (IHU Liryc, Bordeaux, France) and computer science (Inria, Sophia Antipolis, France).

InHEART was approved by the Food and Drug Administration this year for commercial use. Dr. Tolat is the first physician to use the technology for a patient outside a research environment.

“For patients with diseased hearts, this will likely become the standard practice prior to their having a VT or PVC ablation,” Dr. Tolat said. “Having this technology available to us puts Hartford HealthCare at the forefront for patients needing these procedures.”