title: Treatment of arrhythmias by external charged particle beams: a Langendorff feasibility study.
abstract: Hadron therapy has already proven to be successful in cancer therapy, and might be a noninvasive alternative for the ablation of cardiac arrhythmias in humans. We present a pilot experiment investigating acute effects of a 12C irradiation on the AV nodes of porcine hearts in a Langendorff setup. This setup was adapted to the requirements of charged particle therapy. Treatment plans were computed on calibrated CTs of the hearts. Irradiation was applied in units of 5 and 10 Gy over a period of about 3 h until a total dose of up to 160 Gy was reached. Repeated application of the same irradiation field helped to mitigate motion artifacts in the resulting dose distribution. After irradiation, PET scans were performed to verify accurate dose application. Acute AV blocks were identified. No other acute effects were observed. Hearts were kept in sinus rhythm for up to 6 h in the Langendorff setup. We demonstrated that 12C ions can be used to select a small target in the heart and, thereby, influence the electrical conduction system. Second, our pilot study seems to suggest that no adverse effects have to be expected immediately during heavy ion irradiation in performing subsequent experiments with doses of 30-60 Gy and intact pigs.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prall
authors.forename: H Immo
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Prokesch
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Graeff
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaderka
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sonnenberg
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hauswald
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weymann
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Constantinescu
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haberer
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Debus
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Szabó
authors.forename: Sevil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Korkmaz
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Durante
authors.forename: Douglas L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Packer
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology*; D053840:Brugada Syndrome; D000075224:Cardiac Conduction System Disease; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D063193:Heavy Ion Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013552:Swine; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*