Boston Scientific Corporation announces the market launch of the Blazer RPM™ advanced navigation and ablation catheter — the first bidirectional navigation catheter available in the United States. The Blazer RPM catheter offers physicians the familiar handling and predictable performance of the Blazer® catheter platform coupled with the advanced mapping and recording functions available through the RPM™ Realtime Position Management system.

Advanced mapping and navigation is a recent advancement that provides guidance of the ablation catheter while creating 3-D representations of the heart chambers. By creating visual maps of the heart's conduction system, it can assist in the identification of complex tachycardias. Tachycardias can be a serious cardiac condition characterized by rapid heartbeats originating in the atrium or the ventricle at greater than 100 beats per minute. Over four million people in the United States suffer from tachycardias.

The Boston Scientific RPM system integrates advanced mapping, navigation and EP recording into one unit, allowing a single operator to perform all of the functions. Features include: voltage and isochronal mapping, 64-channel electrogram recording, dual mode anatomic modeling, bidirectional linking between stored electrograms and related catheter positions, and non-fluoroscopic 3-D real-time navigation of the catheter curve and tip. With the introduction of the Blazer RPM navigation and ablation catheter, RPM system users now have a choice of ablation technologies: temperature controlled ablation with the Blazer RPM catheter or fluid-cooled ablation with the Chilli RPM™ closed-loop cooled ablation catheter. The RPM system is the only advanced mapping system to offer physicians both ablation technologies.

“I was very pleased with the Blazer RPM catheter,” said Dr. Stephen R. Shorofsky, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland. “It combines the familiar handling characteristics of the Blazer catheter with the navigational and advanced mapping capabilities of the RPM system. I use the RPM system for difficult cases that are best approached with 3-D mapping. The bidirectional steering and the predictable performance make it easier to position the catheter in precise locations. The Blazer RPM provides a big benefit to the RPM system.”