Technology Corner

Medicine is a high-tech field, and NYU is right on the cutting edge, with several pieces of equipment that can be found at few other hospitals in the world. Here are some recently acquired devices that are helping doctors make care safer, faster, and more comfortable for patients:

>> Soft and Gentle Catheters Catheters usually have to be fairly rigid so that they can be manually pushed through the tortuously curved blood vessels of the body. But the Stereotaxis Niobe Magnetic Navigation System machine’s magnetic steering means that catheters can be as soft as cooked spaghetti, and thus safer for the patient. With an electrophysiologist at the helm of a remote control computerized guidance system, the machine uses large external magnets to steer catheters with magnetic tips through the vascular system. The catheters are being used for procedures such as destroying malfunctioning heart tissue that causes irregular heartbeats. The machine, at NYU since November 2004, is the first installed at a hospital in the northeast U.S.

>> Magnetic Signals from Cells Brain activity is usually measured from its electrical signals, with electroencephalography (EEG). But this can be imprecise; it may not pinpoint, say, epileptic seizures, to even one lobe of the brain. But the new 4-D Neuroimaging Magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine, at NYU since August 2004, can pick up the faint magnetic fields created by nerve cells in the brain. These signals are not deformed by the skull, unlike electrical signals, so MEG can pinpoint the source of brain signals to within a tenth of an inch. MEG results are overlaid on a patient’s MRI images to highlight the area involved in such diseases as epilepsy, and can thus eliminate the need for some invasive exploratory surgeries. NYU is the first hospital on the East Coast to have a clinically dedicated MEG that covers the full head and offers such high resolution.

>> Virtual Body Slicing The Siemens SOMATOM Sensation 64 computed tomography (CT) scanner is the fastest in the nation, recording 64 cross-sectional image slices of the body with each rotation of the machine’s sensors. The sensors rotate three times a second, creating about 180 image slices each second. Each slice is half as thick as standard CT scanner slices. This allows radiologists to see details of anatomy and pathology never before possible. Such high-resolution imaging can take the place of more-invasive exploratory procedures, such as colonoscopy or cardiac angiography. The machine, at NYU since November 2004, is the fourth to be installed in the United States.