Katie Lekx-Toniolo is making waves in the medical field. The Oxford Mills woman was part of the team behind a breakthrough heart treatment at the Ottawa Hospital last month.
Lekx-Toniolo, a physicist, noted the procedure was developed at the University of Washington, in St. Louis. This was the first time it was done in Canada.
She explained the procedure involves the same radiation used to treat cancer patients, directed at the heart – particularly the regions causing electrical activity to go haywire.
Lekx-Toniolo says the treatment helps people with ventricular arrhythmia, which can cause cardiac arrest. She explained an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is used to combat arrhythmia, by shocking the heart. This new treatment reduces arrhythmia in patients, bypassing the shock.
She noted it’s been very successful and patients expected to live months are now living for years afterwards. Lekx-Toniolo says one patient has been treated so far in Ottawa and another is in the treatment planning stages. She explained the patient was in and out in one hour.
She says the long-term goal is to reduce the number of invasive heart surgeries.