Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center is among the first U.S. hospitals to receive approval to perform a new nonsurgical heart valve replacement procedure, the Edwards Sapien Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR).

TAVR is significant because it does not require open chest surgery, giving hope for heart patients with inoperable aortic stenosis (failing heart valves). A catheter fed through the femoral artery is used to implant the Edwards SAPIEN Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valve, which just received FDA approval for commercial use in the U.S.

Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center is the first hospital in the Southwest region to implant an MRI-safe pacemaker, a major technological breakthrough for patients who need MRI diagnostic scans, which can damage older style pacemakers or cause serious health complications.

A pacemaker is a small device placed in the chest to help control abnormal heart rhythms, using electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate. Some 200,000 pacemaker patients in the United States annually are not eligible for MRI scans, which are critical for making a wide range of health diagnoses.

The LipiScan Coronary Imaging System made its debut at the Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center. The new technology helps detect lipid core-containing plaque in the heart, the type believed to have caused the death of television journalist Tim Russert. 

The system uses an infrared catheter to identify the plaque, which cannot be detected by commonly used tests such as treadmill exams and coronary angiograms. Lipid core-containing plaque is believed to be “vulnerable plaque” or fatty plaque that ruptures to form dangerous blood clots. Such plaque is suspected of causing most sudden cardiac deaths, strokes and non-fatal heart attacks.