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Healing without medications or surgical ion beams against certain cardiac arrhythmias
Cardiac arrhythmias are a common complaint that often requires long-term medication and sometimes even surgery. However, researchers from the University of Heidelberg, the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center, the University of Trento (Italy) and the Mayo Clinic (USA) have developed a new treatment method without drugs or surgery manages.
The researchers used ions for cardiac arrhythmias - with success. The procedure could in the future enable treatment of cardiac arrhythmias without drugs or surgery, the scientists report in the journal "Scientific Reports" They "could show that with the high-energy carbon ions from the outside targeted changes in the heart tissue can be generated, the forwarding of the electrical signal, "according to the statement of the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research.
In the case of cardiac arrhythmias, treatment with ions could in future replace medication and catheter surgery. (Image: eyetronic / fotolia.com) Irradiation with carbon ions
The biophysicists at the GSI have collaborated with physicians at the University of Heidelberg and the Mayo Clinic to develop a procedure that uses radiation with carbon ions to treat cardiac arrhythmias. The method was already known from the tumor treatment. However, it may also be used in cardiac arrhythmias. and represents a non-invasive alternative to previous treatment with cardiac catheters or medications, the researchers report.
Medication or catheter procedure so far common
According to the researchers, around 350,000 patients in Germany alone suffer from various cardiac arrhythmias, which can lead, for example, to a stroke or sudden cardiac death. In cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, the heart comes out of its regular cycle, which is given by the sinus node as a pulse generator. The normalization of the heartbeat could then be done with drugs or even by a so-called catheter ablation. In the latter, a catheter is passed through the blood vessels to the heart and there corresponding tissue is desolate, explain the researchers.
Feasibility study with convincing result
Based on the principle of catheter ablation, a treatment without a catheter could also be carried out with ions from the particle accelerator, according to the researchers. In a feasibility study, they have therefore checked the use of the method with carbon ions. "After previous tests on cardiac cell cultures and beating heart preparations with promising results, the scientists had prepared an animal study," according to the GSI Communication. The study results were so convincing that the researchers now hope for a timely application in humans.
Targeted treatment without catheter possible
"The study has shown that the method can be successfully used to modify heart tissue to permanently disrupt the spread of interfering impulses," reports Dr. med. Christian Graeff, Head of the Medical Physics Group at the GSI. "The new method is a big step into the future as it allows us to perform this treatment completely without a catheter and yet purposefully for the first time. H. Immo Lehmann of the Mayo Clinic.
Significant improvement in treatment
The scientists conclude that irradiating the tissue with carbon ions can be gentler and potentially more effective than treatment by catheter. "Once the method is technically mature, an intervention will take only a few minutes, compared to the sometimes hours of catheter surgery." , the researchers report. It also offers the significant advantage that the penetration depth of the ions is not limited. In particular, the left ventricular wall of the heart, which is particularly thick, often cause difficulties in the obliteration with catheters here. But especially at this point especially severely affected patients with so-called ventricular tachycardia urgently need treatment, explain the doctors.
Further studies in preparation
According to the Helmholtz Center, scientists have used many technologies in their study that were originally developed for cancer therapy with ions. With this now established therapy, many thousands of patients worldwide have been treated in cancer therapy. However, further detailed studies will be needed before the method can be applied to patients for the first time, the scientists emphasize. (Fp)