Lab Members

Bio

My name is Natalie and I am currently working at CardioNXT as a clinical engineer. CardioNXT is a mapping and navigation company that develops a special system to treat patients with abnormal heart rhythms, like afib. Electrophysiologists use our system to complete cardiac ablation procedures. Essentially, the electrophysiologist inserts a catheter through a vein in the groin and maneuvers it to the atrial chambers of the heart. There, the catheter emits either a high voltage or radio frequency to kill specific heart tissue that is causing abnormal heart rhythms. During the procedure, I work with electrophysiologists to create voltage maps of the heart for these patients, which is essential to knowing where to ablate in the chamber. When the catheter comes into contact with the interior chamber walls, it collects a point cloud which creates a geometric mesh of the chamber. This allows the electrophysiologist to visualize the actual chamber of the heart along with the catheter and its orientation. The electrodes on the catheter also collect intracardiac electrograms, which allow us to assign each region of the chamber a voltage through a color map. These voltage maps allow us to identify the source of abnormal rhythms and ablate these regions, killing the tissue, and effectively restoring the heart rhythm to normal. I really enjoy what I get to do because I am able to work hand-in-hand with doctors during live procedures across the United States and Europe, and I get to see real progress being made with this technology in a clinical setting. I wouldn’t be here without the support of Dr. Keshav and the lab!