AF Symposium 2016

Six Live Catheter Ablations—Watching the Experts

by Steve S. Ryan, PhD

Watching LIVE catheter ablations on floor-to-ceiling display screens was one of the most interesting and exciting features of the AF Symposium. “Case Studies: Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation” featured live streaming video (transmitted via the internet rather than by satellite as in previous years).

The six ablations were streamed live from:

• Seoul, South Korea
• Munich, Germany
• Bordeaux, France
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Austin, Texas
• Boston, Massachusetts

A world-class panel of electrophysiologists (EPs) were able to interact with the EPs doing the ablations and ask questions.

The panelists were: Dr. Moussa Mansour (Co-Moderator), Dr. Jeremy Ruskin (Co-Moderator), Dr. Michel Haissaguerre, Dr. Francis Marchlinsk,i Dr. Andrea Natale, Dr. Douglas Packer, Dr. Vivek Reddy and Dr. David Wilber.¹

The Live Cases Begin

Seoul, South Korea: 62-year-old in long-standing persistent A-Fib

Drs. Young-Hoon Kim, Jong-II Choi, JaeMin Shim and their colleagues from S. Korea were all wearing radiation glasses. They were doing a very difficult case of a 62-year-old in long-standing persistent A-Fib for 12 years. He had had a previous ablation. But his A-Fib had recurred five months ago.

His PVs were well isolated. They worked on ablating CFAEs, the right atrium, and the septum which was very fibrotic.

What was very unusual was they performed an epicardial ablation (outside the heart) to isolate an A-Fib signal they found coming from Bachman’s Bundle. (We didn’t get to actually see that, due to the audio problem.)

When they ablated the Left Atrial Appendage, the A-Fib terminated.

What Was Most Impressive

• Ablating from outside the heart. As far as I know, very few EPs do this. Should every EP receive training in ablating from outside the heart? What’s the best way of discovering and mapping A-Fib signals coming from the exterior of the heart, such as from Bachman’s Bundle? (I’ve written the S. Korean EPs to ask them these questions.)

• Successfully ablating and terminating A-Fib in someone who had been in long-standing persistent A-Fib for 12 years. This is usually the most difficult kind of case and the hardest to cure. (Many EPs would consider this long-standing persistent case unfixable and not even attempt a catheter ablation.) It’s no surprise that this was the second ablation for this patient. This case also shows the importance of the Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) in A-Fib ablation.

Munich, Germany: 62-year-old male in long-standing persistent A-Fib and BMI of 35

Drs. Isabel Diesenhofer, Felix Bourier and Tilko Reents of the German Heart Center in Munich did an ablation on an unusual case, a 62-year-old male in long-standing persistent A-Fib with a BMI of 35! (Many centers would not accept this patient for an ablation without his first losing weight.)

Dr. Diesenhofer said they don’t use Contact Force sensing catheters because they are too soft. They don’t use TEE but instead use CT to check for clots and to see where the esophagus is in relation to the back of the heart. They perform circumferential PVI.

They were testing a brand new software that combined voltage reading and CFAEs using an enhanced algorithm that measures continuous electrical activity. Their goal is to terminate A-Fib during the procedure, but 70%-80% of these cases come back in Atrial Tachycardia (AT). A second ablation is usually more successful.

They found that the fastest frequencies were coming from the patient’s LAA. When they terminated A-Fib, they used adenosine to test for recurrence.

What Was Most Impressive

• I was surprised that they were doing an ablation on someone with a BMI of 35! The chances of recurrence are huge when someone is obese.

• The use of adenosine after termination of the patient’s A-Fib in order to try to re-induce A-Fib and test for ablation integrity and isolation.

• And, as in the live case from South Korea, this case showed the importance of the LAA in A-Fib ablation, particularly in persistent A-Fib.

Bordeaux, France: 40 year old who went directly into persistent A-Fib

Dr. Mélèze Hocini, Bordeaux, France worked behind what looked like a Plexiglas screen with arm holes as a protection against radiation. Her patient was unusual in that he was relatively young, 40 years old, who went directly into persistent A-fib without apparently having paroxysmal (occasional) A-Fib first. He had undergone 3 cardioversions. He was symptomatic, especially dyspnea. He had tried Sotalol and Flecainide.

The day before his ablation, he was mapped with the ECGI/ECVUE Cardio Insight vest. Dr. Hocini showed how the vest mapped four basic areas where there were rotors/focal drivers. She had circled each area and gave each one a priority number from 1 to 4 depending on how many rotors/foci there were in each section.

We watched as she ablated the first area. She ablated at 40 watts for 30 or 40 seconds. The LAA had the highest frequency 167. (In general, they try to slow down the frequency to 200 which usually results in termination.)

An important innovation the Bordeaux group has developed is to re-map during the procedure. Sometimes new signal areas may appear which need to be ablated. Dr. Hocini, re-mapped, but didn’t find any new signal areas. This patient had many CFAEs (70%). The drivers covered 30% of his left and right atria.

Someone mentioned that the Pentaray mapping catheter was faster and provided better definition than ECGI. Non-PV triggers are often found in the septum, anterior left atrium, coronary sinus, and the left and right appendages. The goal is to slow down the frequency and make the signals more organized.

After a visit with the teams in Philadelphia and Austin, the moderators returned to the group in Bordeaux, France.

Everyone was relaxing and happy. While we were away, Dr. Hocini had ablated the third area of rotors/foci which terminated the A-Fib and restored the patient to sinus rhythm.Since the patient was already in sinus, Dr. Hocini didn’t ablate the remaining fourth area of rotors/foci.

What Was Most Impressive

• It was simply amazing to see ECGI/ECVUE in action! To me it looked like I was seeing the future of A-Fib ablation. Dr. Hocini seemed almost nonchalant, like she had done this many times before and was confident it would work. Like many great innovations, using ECGI seemed very simple.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:  76-year-old woman with hypertension, persistent A-Fib for five years and previous PVI

The moderators then switched to Drs. David Frankel, Pasquale Santangeli, and Gregory Supple at the Un. of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. They were ablating a 76-year-old woman with hypertension who had been in persistent A-Fib for five years. (Usually a more difficult case.) She had had a Cardioversion in 2014. She was on amiodarone but was still severely symptomatic.

In their experience, ablating only the PVs returns patients to sinus in 80% of all types of A-Fib. They find non-PV triggers in many different sites in the left and right atria. Their protocol is to do a PVI, cardiovert, ablate, then use isoproterenol to induce or re-induce A-Fib triggers.

This patient also had had a previous PVI, but two of her PVs were re-connected and needed to be ablated. She was restored to sinus rhythm. They then used isoproterenol to try to re-induce A-Fib.

They also employed a somewhat unusual strategy called “empirical” ablation. From their experience, they know that certain sites in the atria tend to produce non-PV A-Fib signals. Even though this patient was no longer in A-Fib/Flutter, they still ablated in these known non-PV trigger sites.

What Was Most Impressive

• “Empirical” ablation (ablating areas known to produce A-Fib signals even though the patient is no longer in A-Fib) is a somewhat controversial strategy. Some would say one shouldn’t scar or burn the heart unless those areas are actually producing A-Fib signals or potentials. Scarring does damage heart tissue. Personally, I would prefer to have them ablate these “empirical” sites as long as they are in my heart anyway.

• In contrast with the Munich, Germany case, the EPs in the Un. of Pennsylvania used isoproterenol to try to re-induce A-Fib rather than adenosine.

Austin, Texas: 83-year-old woman in long-standing persistent A-Fib

The moderators then switched to Drs. Rodney Horton, Amin Al-Ahmad, and J. David Burkhardt at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Center in Austin, TX. They didn’t use any fluoroscopy during their ablation and weren’t wearing the standard-issue lead vests to protect from radiation. They used ICE for navigation.

Their patient was an 83-year-old woman in long-standing persistent A-Fib. Even though she was very symptomatic, she was very active and was scheduled to be married in a couple of weeks. She had been on amiodarone and had failed cardioversions. She had a lot of severe scarring.

They cardioverted her two times without success. After their first ablation, they used isoproterenol to check for re-connection. Two of the PVs had reconnected and had to be re-isolated. Their next step was to isolate the LAA. But they stressed to us the need to discuss with the patient the risk of completely electrically disconnecting the LAA. This patient knew that she could lose her LAA, that later they may have to physically remove it, and that this might affect her.

She still wanted it done so that she could be restored to sinus rhythm. For her it was better long term to be free of A-Fib than to retain a LAA.

They did electrically isolate her LAA and restored her to sinus rhythm, which she hadn’t been in in many years.

What Was Most Impressive

• Though we had seen this last year in the live cases, it was still something of a shock to see EPs, nurses and staff not wearing any protective gear against radiation. (When I visited an A-Fib lab to watch an ablation, I had to wear a very heavy lead vest and other protective gear.) They use ICE instead of fluoroscopy (X-ray) to manipulate the catheters.

• You will notice that this is the third live case emphasizing the importance of the LAA, particularly in persistent A-Fib. They discussed with this patient the possibility that she might lose her LAA. But like most A-Fib patients, she was willing to take that risk to be free of A-Fib

Boston, Massachusetts: 65-year-old male with atypical Flutter

The moderators then switched to Dr. Kevin Heist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was working on a case of atypical Flutter. A 65-year-old male patient had been symptomatic for many years. He had tried flecainide. In 2003, he had a PVI. Then in 2010 he had to have a re-do which kept him in sinus rhythm for 5 years. In 2015 he had a cardioversion but still had atypical flutter. His ejection fraction was a very good 75%, but he had mild left atrial enlargement. They found that his PVs and posterior atrium wall were still well isolated.

They demonstrated how to use the PentaRay NAV mapping and ablation catheter (Biosense Webster) to very rapidly map the atrium. It uses a multi-electrode mapping technology. The five branch star design has branches that are soft and flexible so as not to damage the heart surface.

Through pacing, Dr. Heist found a Mitral Annulus Flutter, which he ablated. This terminated the Atrial Tachycardia and restored the patient to sinus.

What Was Most Impressive

• It was fascinating to watch the PentaRay catheter rapidly move by itself over the heart. It kind of looked like a spider crawling along inside the heart. It was amazing how fast the PentaRay catheter reproduced and mapped the heart automatically in high resolution. Very few moves were necessary to map the whole left atrium.

• Is the PentaRay NAV mapping catheter better than the FIRM or ECGI/ECVUE systems? Should one seek out a center using the PentaRay catheter? Right now we can’t say for sure. As far as I know, there haven’t yet been any comparative studies of the PentaRay mapping catheter compared to FIRM or ECGI. Most likely it will eventually be used in combination with FIRM or ECGI. It seems like an important tool and advance in mapping.

That’s a Wrap

The co-moderators, Dr. Moussa Mansour and Dr. Jeremy Ruskin (both from Mass. General Hospital, Boston,MA) did a good job moving the program along and kept the interactions with the EP labs personnel on point.

It’s awesome to watch the world’s best electrophysiologists restoring patients to normal sinus rhythm and making them A-Fib-free.

Return to 2016 AF Symposium Reports by Steve Ryan, PhD

If you find any errors on this page, email us. Y Last updated: Sunday, April 26, 2020

Related Posts