MiRTLE Medical manufactures a high-fidelity, MRI-compatible 12-lead ECG monitoring system, a first of its kind due to MRI induced interference. The predominant electrical interference is the direct pickup of the MRI’s energy through the electrode wires, which is eliminated with a combination of custom engineered filters and advanced signal processing. The secondary interference is a physiological effect the magnetic field has on blood as it moves through the aorta and will be eliminated by sophisticated signal processing in the future. These two solutions to eliminate the MRI’s interference along with the MRI-tuned patient safety cables, are the core of MiRTLE’s IP.

The 12-lead ECG monitoring device presents interference-free ECG signals to a cardiologist and gates the MRI during a heartbeat, thereby enabling the MRI to produce sharp images of the heart. Currently, the only monitoring is from 3-Lead devices which simply gate the MRI. These devices are not suitable for diagnostic monitoring of the patient.

12-lead ECGs are the standard of care for detecting acute ischemia as well as for a variety of functional heart diseases. With MRI’s increasing role in detecting central-nervous system and orthopedic diseases, patients with ischemic history are increasingly referred for MRI exams.

In addition, there are now more situations, such as trauma (stroke, spinal injury) or pediatric imaging, where MRI is performed on sedated or anesthetized patients, which require advanced ECG monitoring.  Interest is also growing in MRI-guided interventions and surgery, where patients lie in the magnet for more time, and the level of risk, such as of an acute ischemic event (restricted blood flow), or incurring Ventricular Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) or Ventricular Fibrillation (cardiac arrest), is inherently greater. For such interventions, rapid detection of cardiac events is a pre-requisite, as a prelude to life support (defibrillation, CPR).