Diamond probe for a faulty heartbeat
Adiamond-tipped probe that fixes faulty heart rhythms could cut the risk of stroke. the probe, which is slightly narrower than a straw, has three tiny gems on the tip. once it is fed into the heart, through a tiny incision in the groin or wrist, the diamonds are heated up to about 70c. this destroys the rogue heart cells that are causing the faulty rhythms, and which may lead to a condition called atrial fibrillation (aF).
more than one million people in the UK have aF, which develops when electrical activity in the heart goes haywire and causes it to beat irregularly.
this can result in chest pain, dizziness and fatigue. But a significant number of those affected have no idea they are ill until they have a stroke.
the irregular heartbeat means blood which should get pumped around the body begins to pool inside the heart’s upper chambers, which can cause clots to develop.
if a clot then breaks away and travels up to blood vessels that feed the brain, it can result in a stroke.
aF causes some 16,000 strokes a year in the UK.
treatments include the bloodthinning drug warfarin to stop clots forming, and cardioversion, where the heart is shocked back into a normal rhythm using electrodes.
Cardiologists can also try ablation, in which probes tipped with platinum or gold are heated up to 50c to 70c. these are used to destroy the area of heart tissue that is generating the irregular rhythms.
although often effective, these techniques risk damaging the surrounding healthy tissue, because the area needing treatment may only be a few millimetres in diameter. also, platinum and gold probes conduct heat relatively slowly, which means it’s harder to precisely control temperatures at the tip.
it also slows down the procedure because doctors must constantly monitor the temperature of the probe.
many ablation patients, therefore, spend longer under a general anaesthetic, which itself has potential complications such as nausea and even blood clots.
diamonds, however, heat up more rapidly as they are a much more efficient conductive material. this cuts the procedure time and gives doctors more control of the tip’s temperature, making collateral damage less likely.
in a trial involving 482 patients across the U. S., europe and Canada, the probe — called
diamondtemp — more than halved the time it took to eradicate rogue tissue compared to normal ablation techniques.
according to results published in the journal Clinical electrophysiology in January, it also fixed the problem in almost 80 per cent of patients, compared to 75 per cent with conventional ablation. there were fewer complications, too. T
he U.S. medical regulator, the Food and drug administration, approved the diamond probe’s use in america earlier this year.
Six NHS hospitals are currently trialling it. if these trials prove successful, be rolled out the across technology the health could service in the next few years.
martin Cowie, a professor of cardiology at imperial College London, says although ablation can be ‘very effective’, it ‘ often takes hours to perform and has some risks’.
he adds: ‘ this new technique looks promising when it comes to reducing the operation time, and perhaps also the risk of complications, helping both the patient and the cardiologist.’