WVU Heart and Vascular Institute physicians are the first in the state and region to perform ablation of atrial fibrillation guided by a new technology, Volta’s AF-Xplorer, which promises to personalize the ablation approach.
Atrial fibrillation is an increasingly common condition in which areas of the heart housing the electrical system (atria) become diseased, causing short circuiting and resulting in rapid and irregular heart beating. This can cause symptoms such as lack of energy, shortness of breath, palpitation, chest discomfort and lightheadedness, and is associated with poor life quality, heart failure, stroke and death.
Ablation is a technique in which diseased atrial tissues are neutralized.
According to David Schwartzman, M.D., chief of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, “The current state of the art for ablation may be likened to an educated guess – that is, given that disease often occurs in the same atrial regions among patients, if we ablate those regions, we are often successful. However, ‘often’ remains a distance from ‘always,’ and we believe that this is because individual patients also have disease in other atrial regions, unique to them, conceptually similar to a fingerprint. The problem has been locating the unique regions comprising the fingerprint.”
The AF-Xplorer technology, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, sets out to solve this problem by analyzing electrical signals from within the heart during atrial fibrillation recorded immediately prior to the ablation procedure. Using artificial intelligence, a patient-specific set of atrial targets is created, which the surgeon can then use immediately during the ablation procedure.
The first patient was treated at WVU Medicine on Aug. 23. He has returned to full activity and is in normal rhythm.
“We are hopeful that technologies such as AF-Xplorer, which facilitate personalization of atrial fibrillation ablation, will result in even higher long-term success rates than those we currently enjoy,” Dr. Schwartzman said. “I am honored to be part of a team dedicated to pushing boundaries in pursuit of better outcomes for those who entrust their care to us.”
For more information about the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, visit WVUMedicine.org/Heart.
