Zapping young hearts

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- About one in every 1,000 children has an abnormal heart rhythm. Fixing this problem surgically used to require exposure to dangerous levels of radiation. Now, doctors have a safer way to zap hearts back into rhythm.

Devaughnte Walker, 17, is hoping today will be the last day he can't perform his favorite hobbies.

"I like dancing, skating, rapping, and swimming," Walker told ABC30.

Two years ago, doctors told him he had an abnormal heartbeat.

"[I] get woozy, dizzy, light-headed, and then [my] heart starts racing," Walker explained.

He is having a procedure called catheter ablation.

For the procedure, doctors insert tubes in the heart and a special machine delivered energy to troubled areas. In the past, X-rays and fluoroscopy were used to see areas of the heart. However, that exposed kids to dangerous radiation.

"The adaptation that we've made, and that others have made, is using that 3-D technology to really eliminate the use of radiation entirely in most cases," Peter Aziz, MD, Pediatric Electrophysiologist, Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital, told ABC30.

Cleveland Clinic doctors used 3D mapping to plot Walker's heart, so they knew exactly where to deliver the ablation. This version of the procedure is about 95 percent successful.

"Really, the only difference has been using radiation before versus not using radiation now," Aziz said.

Too much radiation exposure can lead to cancer or DNA mutations. Children are especially sensitive.

Walker and his mom are thankful for this safer alternative.

"I'm excited about the way that they do it, and that they are not using radiation," Kimberly Wilson, Walker's mom, told ABC30.

"I'm going to be normal," Walker said. "I'm going to be peaches and cream."

Less radiation for the kids also means less radiation for the medical staff. About 20 percent of an average person's radiation exposure comes from a medical setting.

For more information on this report, please contact:

Rita Newberg
newberr@ccf.org
216-444-9394