Functional Heart Tomography (FHT)

SQUID sensors enable a non-invasive monitoring of the electrophysiology of the heart. The measuring unit is positioned over the thorax and detects biomagnetic signals that reflect the functional state of the heart muscle passively.
Because there is no physical contact, no radiation, nor contrast agents involved, the method is safer than other diagnostic tools and predestined for repeated patient screening. It is for the diagnostic power and potentially life saving patient information that the technology will enter routine clinical measurement in the future.

Medical Relevance is currently proved in clinical studies in different places in the world and show promising first results. Measuring systems for clinical research in unshielded or adaptively shielded environment are marketed by Supracon in cooperation with Cryoton and Softmag. These systems could be delivered in different configurations:

• 1-4 channel systems, e.g. for animal studies
• 7-9 channel systems (4-6 measuring positions to image the whole thorax)
• 36 channel systems for complete heart muscle imaging (20×20 cm)
• customised systems according to particular requirements  
  

System components

System component	Description
Shielding	shielding adapted to place of installation
sensors	liquid helium cooled SQUID sensors
cryostat	low-noise fibreglass cryostat with holding time of at least one week
Electronic	SQUID Electronics, control and power supply unit
	Data acquisition system
	noise suppression electronics
housing	low vibration system holder with height adjustment, non-magnetic patient bed
Software	measuring system control, data acquisition, source localisation, diagnosis tools
Accessories	Liquid helium transfer line, level meter, 12 lead ECG, ergometer, analysis terminal, vacuum pump

Software

Our partner in software development, Softmag Group, has developed in over 10 years an analysis software for the biomagnetic heart data. It incorporates the following functionalities:

• Display of space-and-time variations of averaged MCG complexes, QRS contour analysis, mapping, evaluation of integral and correlation characteristics
• analysis of homogenity of repolarization process
• Space-and-time variations of electrical active zones, arrithmogenic tissue localization, three-dimensional reconstruction of current distribution of heart muscle
• spatial-time analysis of ST-T
  

Diagnostic information are displayed in a well arranged and easy controllable graphic user interface. Classification of patients with slightly changed or unchanged ECG can furthermore be conducted.

The functionality of the software can be adapted, extended or modified acoording to customer needs.