At a open house today of UC Davis Medical Center's cutting-edge cardiovascular services wing, the latest advancements in medical equipment for diagnosing and treating several heart ailments were demonstrated, including the center's Stereotaxis lab--the only one of its kind in inland Northern California.
The $3 million lab includes two 1,200-pound magnets that can create a magnetic field eight inches in diameter around a patient's heart. Through use of a catheter controlled using a joystick, keyboard, or mouse, an electrophysiologist can see a real-time 3D image of the patient's heart on a computer screen.
"Because of the accuracy in this, because of the control of the tip within one millimeter, you can get to places that you can't get to in a manual catheter," said Rob Underwood, director of the heart and vascular centers at UC Davis.
Other exhibitions included a MitraClip and Helex device that can clip together an open heart valve and plug a hole in the heart, respectively, without open heart surgery. A 3D echocardiography that can produce high-quality images using ultrasound, and a diamond-encrusted burr cutter used to drill away harmful artery buildup were also demonstrated.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.