Luz Saúde SA
Luz Saúde SA
04/19/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/19/2024 08:11
Non-invasive treatment of tachycardia first time in Portugal
HL Lisboa performs non-invasive ablation using stereotactic radiotherapy to treat ventricular tachycardia.
A team from Hospital da Luz Lisboa performed this week, and for the first time in Portugal, a non-invasive ablation using stereotactic radiotherapy, to treat a patient with resistant ventricular tachycardia.
The procedure was the result of joint work by cardiology, radiotherapy and imaging specialists from Hospital da Luz Lisboa. It was carried out on an outpatient basis and concluded successfully, with the patient leaving the hospital on his own two feet a few hours later. The fact that it is performed non-invasively, without the introduction of catheters, resulted in a quick and complete recovery for the patient.
The Hospital da Luz Lisboa team was led by Ana Leonor Parreira (Cardiology), Francisco Mascarenhas (Radiooncology) and António Miguel Ferreira (Cardiology and Imaging) and had the collaboration of medical physicists Sofia Faustino and Sara Germano.
As radiooncologist Francisco Mascarenhas explained, «the treatment was carried out with an Elekta Versa linear accelerator with 6 Mv photons, with an intensity modulated arc therapy technique. This technique is image-guided, with the patient in deep inspiration, and controlled by an infrared-based optical monitoring system of the body surface, in synchronous and continuous connection with the linear accelerator».
Stereotactic body radiotherapy, known as SBRT, has been used to treat cancer for several years. In 2017, at Washington University Hospital in St. Louis, United States, Prof. Phillip S. Cuculich and his team created a protocol for the ablation of resistant ventricular tachycardia by stereotactic radiotherapy. Some of the most important cardiac centers in the world have adopted this technique, such as the Instituto do Coração in S. Paulo, Brazil. This is a therapeutic modality for the ablation of resistant ventricular tachycardias, which is now finally available in Portugal, only at Hospital da Luz Lisboa.
Ventricular tachycardia is responsible for around half of deaths in patients with structural heart disease. This is because the pharmacological therapy used for these situations is often not effective and has a very low success rate in preventing relapses.
Non-invasive stereotactic ablation thus emerges as a new treatment opportunity for these patients, especially those in whom catheter ablation therapy has failed or is contraindicated.
The clinical protocol for this first treatment in Portugal was prepared and developed at the Heart Rhythm Center of Hospital da Luz Lisboa, led by Pedro Adragão, together with the Electrophysiology, Radioncology and Imaging teams at HLL.
«Hospital da Luz Lisboa's extensive experience in cardiac imaging, stereotactic radiotherapy, non-invasive mapping and catheter ablation were decisive in successfully completing this project, which fills a gap at national level in terms of therapeutic alternatives for these difficult cases», concludes cardiologist Leonor Parreira.