MaRVis Technologies GmbH
MRI-GUIDED INTERVENTIONS
„Interventional procedure“ means a medical treatment which uses the small puncture of a blood vessel as the entry point for a medical device required for the respective treatment. This comprises all disease areas such as cardiovascular, neurological, interventional tumor therapy, etc. The term „interventional procedure“ does not define the type of imaging method applied, i.e. covers all of X-ray, MR and ultrasound imaging. Most of the procedures today are carried out under X-ray imaging.
New applications in intravascular interventions become possible now with the availability of high speed computers allowing real-time imaging, and of powerful new open MR scanners delivering high resolution images and enabling operational handling of the patient by the physician.
A remaining problem to be solved was clearly distinguished visibility of the tissue structures concurrently to the guidewires and catheters in relation to these. Commercial devices usually are not appropriate for MRI-guided interventions due to electric conductivity of metals used therein and lack of acceptable visibility. They suffer from essential technical limitations which impose severe restrictions for their medical applicability.
Recent scientific publications have demonstrated that generally MRI-guided interventions are feasible with specifically designed guidewires. Yet, material properties and MRI visibility of those guidewires have turned out to be insufficient. Guidewires derived from the MaRVis platform technology overcome these shortfalls.
