A retired priest who lives in Craughwell is one of the first people in the country to be implanted with an MRI compatible pacemaker.
Fr Christopher O’Connor, (78 ) who was parish priest of the village for 20 years, had the innovative device implanted at the Galway Clinic.
Medical technology company Medtronic (which has a large manufacturing base in Galway since 1999 employing 2,000 people ) developed the pacemaker which is compatible with MRI scanners and is hailed as a considerable breakthrough in pacemaker technology.
Until now, patients with pacemakers have not been able to benefit from magnetic resonance imaging, a highly sophisticated diagnostic test which uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body. In many cases MRI gives different information about structures in the body than can be seen with an X-ray, ultrasound or CT scan. MRI also may show problems that cannot be seen with other imaging methods.
Patients with traditional pacemakers - small devices placed in people’s chests or abdomens to help control abnormal heart rhythms - faced a number of dangers from MRI scans. This was because of the potential for pacemakers to interact with MRI machines in a way that could affect the device function or patient safety.
Fr O’Connor, who was one of the first in Ireland to have the pacemaker fitted and to be scanned with the device in place, began suffering from tiredness and lack of energy last year and was advised by his doctor to have an angiogram.
He was told he would need stents inserted into his heart as well as a pacemaker. He had a very slow pulse and was told this would improve as a result of these interventions.
“I felt tired and exhausted a lot and had a very low heartbeat - it was under 40,” he told this newspaper. “I was attending Dr Brendan O’Cochlain, a heart specialist at the Galway Clinic and he said he would like to up its pace. My arteries needed opening up too so I got stents in towards the end of last year and early this year. But they did not have the desired effect so I had to get a pacemaker.
“I told the doctor I had to have an MRI scan done for my spine. He said he was glad to know that because he could put in an MRI friendly pacemaker. He did it and it went fine. I had the scan in the Galway Clinic. I was very impressed with the whole thing. It was vital for me to have a pacemaker and an MRI scan, that the pacemaker was MRI friendly was great.”
Fr O Connor - who is fit and well today and although retired continues to help out in the church - describes the development of the device as a “major breakthrough”. He believes he was “lucky” to benefit from it.
“Hopefully this will be good for other people, too. It is great that they made this progression.”
Dr Gordon Pate, a consultant cardiologist at the Galway Clinic, says the launch of an MRI conditional pacemaker in Ireland means patients can now undergo an MRI scan if that is the most appropriate investigation for their condition.
“With the increasing application of MR scanning and increased life expectancy following pacemaker implant, the chances of a patient with a pacemaker requiring an MRI scan are increasing all the time. Furthermore, patients requiring repeated imaging investigations will be able to benefit from MRI scanning as opposed to X-ray based alternatives, helping to reduce the patient’s exposure to radiation.”
About two million Europeans have implanted pacemakers. More than 2,000 people in Ireland are fitted with the device annually.
According to estimates 50 to 75 per cent of patients worldwide with implanted cardiac devices are expected to need an MRI scan during the lifetime of their devices. After age 65 a person’s chance of needing an MRI scan double.
Heart disease is Ireland’s number one killer. About 10,000 people die each year from cardiovascular disease (CVD ), including coronary heart disease (CHD ), stroke and other circulatory diseases. CVD is the most common cause of death in this country accounting for 36 per cent of all deaths. The largest number of these deaths relate to CHD - mainly heart attack - at 5,000. Twenty two per cent of premature deaths (under age 65 ) are from CVD.
