KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The National Heart Institute (IJN) today announced that it had carried out a procedure to implant a pacemaker in a pregnant woman without the use of radiation — a first in Malaysia.

Its senior consultant cardiologist, Dr Azlan Hussin, told a press conference today that in the previous procedure known as fluoroscopy, radiation was used to determine the passage of the wires to place the pacemaker.

However, he said that with the 30-year-old woman from Manjung, Perak, they used virtual reality.

"We used a magnetic field instead of radiation to map the veins leading to the heart. We utilised virtual reality to conduct the procedure,” said Dr Azlan.

"This is the first time that this procedure has been carried out in Malaysia but it has been done before in more developed countries,” he added.

The patient, who is in her second trimester of pregnancy, had a slow heartbeat of 30 beats per minute and had to be fitted with a pacemaker.

The slow heart rate could have adversely affected her delivery due to low blood pressure and other complications.

Using radiation could cause her baby to face health complications and is normally not used in the treatment of pregnant ladies.

The procedure was done on Monday and took one and a half hours.