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AF Symposium 2015
Pierre Jais MD
Persistent A-Fib: Insights into Finding Additional Drivers May Shorten Ablation Procedures with Fewer Lesions
By Steve s. Ryan, PhD, July 2015
Dr. Pierre Jais of the French Bordeaux/LIRYC group gave a presentation on “The Spectrum of Atrial Tachycardias Following Ablation of Drivers in Persistent AF.”
He described a study of the ablation of 50 persistent A-Fib patients using ECGI to map and ablate A-Fib signal drivers.
A-Fib was terminated in 79% of patients, with 10% returned to sinus rhythm and the remaining 69% in tachycardias (but with no A-Fib).
For those still in arrhythmia, ECGI was used to map, analyze and diagnose the locations of the arrhythmias signals, and additional ablation lesions were performed. Identified were 25 macro-reentry circuits and 14 focal/localized-reentry circuits.
The reentry circuits found by ECGI were:
• common atrial flutter in 14 patients
• perimitral flutter in 9 patients
• roof dependent flutter in 2 patients
Dr. Jais showed many slides and videos of how ECGI mapped and analyzed where these arrhythmias were coming from and how they were ablated.
Dr. Jais’ Conclusions
Dr. Jais stated that the study data revealed, “the focal/localized-reentry were adjacent to drivers at 0.9cm from the core of driver with low voltage (0.5 mV)”.
To clarify, this means that the drivers of the remaining arrhythmias were located very close (adjacent) to the drivers previously mapped by ECGI.
Therefore, when ECGI locates an area of rotors and drivers, it is highly likely this is where the source of additional arrhythmias will most likely be found. This insight reduces or eliminates the need (and time) to search other areas of the heart thereby shortening procedure length and decreasing the number of lesions needed.
Editor’s Comments:
ECGI mapping and ablating is changing our understanding of and our techniques for ablating persistent A-Fib. If a patient has continued arrhythmias after the initial ablation, ECGI often can re-map and identify where the remaining arrhythmias are coming from, usually very near previously identified driver locations. This is a valuable insight for doctors doing ablations.
For patients, it may mean a shorter procedure time with fewer burns needed to eliminate the sources of A-Fib signals.
Return to 2015 AF Symposium: My In-depth Reports Written for Patients
Last updated: Thursday, August 6, 2015
