Have the patients coronary vessels, heart valves or myocardial muscle changed abnormally?
Doctors can verify this and administer the necessary therapy with the help of a catheter, which is inserted into the body through a small incision in the groin area and pushed to the heart through the vascular system. A metal guide wire inside the catheter serves as a navigational aid. It is pulled and turned by the physician to steer and guide the catheter. At the same time the catheter’s position in the vascular system has to be monitored. This task is performed by X-rays, which penetrate the patient and show exactly where the catheter is. The problem with this computer tomography method is that it exposes the patient to quite a high dose of radiation. In addition, a contrast medium has to be injected into the patient’s body in order to make the vascular system and the soft tissue visible on the X-ray images. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen have now found a way of avoiding both the radiation and the contrast medium. In collaboration wit
