High-tech Ticker Tools Give Patients Rhythm

Dr. James Cooper, a physician with the Northwest Arkansas Heart and Vascular Center in Fayetteville, is using some of the world’s latest technology to give hearts their groove back.

The only electrophysiologist in the two-county area, Cooper specializes in treating atrial fibrillations or heart-rhythm disturbances. That typically involves erratic, slowed or fast heart beats which he said affect 3 million-4 million Americans.

Cooper sees 25 to 30 local patients per month who are afflicted with these abnormalities. But unlike most disciplines within the cardiology field, the prodigious technological advancements related to electrophysiology give its patients a chance at complete recovery. The process starts by using a tiny recording catheter to measure electrical signals within the heart.

“There are very few areas of cardiology where you actually have the opportunity to do something that’s curative,” Cooper said. “We treat blockages a variety of ways, but basically we don’t get rid of them. But especially when dealing with the upper chamber of the heart, electrophysiology offers ablation [surgical removal] treatments that can be totally curative. We can help get patients off their medicine for good.”

The latest technology addition by the center is a $30,000 Ivus intracardiac ultrasound ablation system. It’s used by placing a small device within the heart that allows doctors to map all of the muscle’s different structures and pinpoint problems.

A separate $2,500 laser extraction device — the CVX-300 Eximer Laser System — made by The Spectranetics Corp. of Colorado Springs, is part of Cooper’s unique equipment cache. It allows him to safely and painlessly treat patients who develop problems with the leads that run from a pacemaker or defibrillator into the heart.

Traditional removal methods required doctors to manually break down the scar tissue around the leads with a polypropylene sheath. But the laser lead extractor basically evaporates the scar tissue.

“If a heart rhythm is slow, it’s not uncommon that a pacemaker might be required,” Cooper said. “If it’s fast and coming from an upper heart chamber, we can frequently do what we call a radio frequency ablation which places a small burn on the inner surface of the heart and eliminates abnormal nerve pathways.

“A dangerous heart beat in the lower chamber might require inserting a defibrillator, but all of this technology simply helps us diagnose the situation earlier and more accurately.”

Cooper also offers a relatively new therapy for congestive heart failure called bi-ventrical pacing. It involves the insertion of pacer leads into unusual locations within the heart.

The center’s next generation of technology will include a three-dimensional mapping system that will enable Cooper to precisely locate the sources of rhythm problems.

Cooper trained at the Cleveland Clinic, which was recently recognized as the premiere cardiac institution in the nation. Electrophysiology labs for him are under construction at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville and Northwest Medical Center of Washington County in Springdale.

Cooper said symptoms to watch for include palpitations (the feeling the heart is skipping beats) and syncope or “passing-out” spells due to erratic heart beating.

Individual treatment costs in the specialized field can vary greatly. But Cooper said all of his techniques are usually covered by Medicare or private insurance.