St. Luke’s University Health Network’s interventional cardiology team recently debuted the Abbott PressureWire X, the tiniest device ever made for measuring the health and function of the mini-arteries that supply blood flow to the heart muscle. St. Luke’s is the first and only heart program using this innovative tool.

The Abbot PressureWire X, which is about the thickness of a human hair, is inserted by a cardiologist into a symptomatic, but unblocked coronary artery, and advanced to the far reaches of the vessel to seek defects in the walls and inner lining of the tiny blood vessel that lies downstream of a larger coronary artery.

PressureWire X, which has been used in St. Luke’s cardiac catheterization laboratory since July, measures blood temperature and flow in the minute blood vessels, or micro-vessels. A diseased or damaged artery can cause serious symptoms, including angina (heart pain) and vessel spasms, which also can sometimes mimic a heart attack. Heart attacks are caused when one of the three main, larger coronary arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle becomes narrowed, or completely blocked, by plaque.

A sensor on the wire relays data picked up in the vessel to a computer containing new, specialized CoroFlow software, enabling a cardiologist to diagnose the symptoms’ cause and prescribe a treatment.

“We can insert the PressureWire X far into an artery of a patient who has chest pain but not blockages, in order to look into the ‘micro-vessels’ for what’s causing their symptoms,” said Luis Tejada, MD, interventional cardiologist. He added that “small vessel disease” tends to be more commonly found in women, whose arteries are often smaller.

According to Kimberly Wilson, DO, interventional cardiologist, “This new device increases our options for diagnosing and treating the network of tiny coronary arteries, which supply about 90% of blood to the heart muscle.”

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest-cost providers.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy