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Innovative Collaboration Yields Breakthrough in Radiation Protection for Structural Heart Disease Treatment

In a pioneering effort, a team led by Teikyo University School of Medicine's Associate Professor Akihisa Kataoka, Professor Junichi Kotoku from the Graduate School of Medical Technology, and Dr. Fumika Mizugawa, Anesthesiologist at the university affiliated hospital, alongside Assistant Professor Takeshi Takada from the Advanced Comprehensive Research Organization, has shed light on the realities of radiation exposure for echocardiographers and anesthesiologists in the treatment of Structural Heart Disease (SHD). The team also unveiled a newly developed radiation protection board, demonstrating its efficacy.
Published on March 28th and January 25th in the esteemed international scientific journals "Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Asia" and "Journal of Radiation Research" respectively, the findings come at a crucial juncture. With a significant surge in catheter-based SHD treatments, the risks associated with radiation exposure for healthcare practitioners involved have escalated dramatically.

Of particular concern is the protection of pregnant female physicians, making this an urgent matter. Conventional radiation protection boards often necessitate uncomfortable positioning, with echocardiographers and anesthesiologists having to lean out from the side of the board during procedures. This prompted a demand for a protective board that could simultaneously ensure radiation protection and maintain operational ease. Addressing this challenge, the collaborative effort spearheaded by Associate Professor Kataoka from the Cardiology Department, alongside Dr. Mizugawa, Professor Furutoku, and Assistant Professor Takada, who were actively developing a radiation exposure simulation system using a supercomputer, culminated in this groundbreaking study. SHD treatments vary in their orientation of projected radiation. By leveraging the simulation system, echocardiographers performing transesophageal echocardiography were able to identify the areas most susceptible to radiation exposure for each projection direction (Figure 1A). The study also revealed that the radiation dose for echocardiographers varied depending on the procedure (Figure 1B). Additionally, for anesthesiologists, it was possible to estimate areas prone to radiation exposure, as well as the spatial distribution of radiation within the operating room.

Furthermore, through simulations altering the size of the access point in the protective board, it was demonstrated that smaller openings provided levels of protection equivalent to those of boards without an opening, particularly for the lens, lower back, and neck surface (Figure 2: A for a board without an opening, B for a board with a large opening, C for a board with a small opening, and D for a board without an opening). Collaborating with Teikyo University's Industry-Academia Collaboration Promotion Center, under the leadership of Professor Hotaka Nakanishi, the team filed a patent application for an SHD-specific radiation protection board based on their research results. They also embarked on a joint product development venture with M.S. Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The result of this partnership, the "FORUshield," a radiation protection board that balances protection with functionality, has been available for purchase since September 2022.

The group collaborated with our university's Teikyo Technology Transfer Center (Head of Center Professor Hotaka Nakanishi) and based on the results of this research, filed a patent application for a radiation protection plate specifically for SHD and jointly developed a product with MS Manufacturing Co., Ltd. . ``FORUshield'', a protective plate that can maintain workability while protecting against radiation exposure, will be on sale from September 2022.

Click here for the article published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Click here for the article published in The Journal of Radiation Research
Click here for FORUshield

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