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(Circulation. 2002;106:e203.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiology Patient Page

Catheter Ablation of Arrhythmias

John M. Miller, MD; Douglas P. Zipes, MD

From the Krannert Institute of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.

Correspondence to John M. Miller, MD, Krannert Institute of Cardiology, 1800 N Capitol Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202. E-mail jmiller6@iupui.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Case Presentation: RJ is a 33-year-old mother of 2 who has been bothered by palpitations lasting 15 to 20 minutes for the last 15 years. She sometimes gets lightheaded and nearly passed out in a grocery store while holding her infant son. She was diagnosed with SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) and was given different medications that either produced severe fatigue or did not prevent episodes. She was told there were other treatment options but her doctor wasn’t sure which was best for her. He referred her to an electrophysiologist (heart rhythm specialist).

In the last 15 years, the treatment of individuals who suffer from episodes of abnormally rapid heart rates (tachycardias) has undergone tremendous changes. New drugs and implantable devices (pacemakers and defibrillators) have been part of this process, but among the more dramatic developments has been the use of a heart catheterization technique called catheter ablation (CA). The heartbeat is the result of heart muscle cells transmitting an electrical signal from one cell to another. When this transmission becomes abnormal, the heartbeat can race inappropriately. Using the CA technique, the electrophysiologist can determine the exact location of the abnormal heart muscle and eliminate (ablate) it. The procedure is applicable to a wide variety of tachycardias, has an extremely high success rate for many of these, and has a low complication and rate of tachycardia recurrence. CA works by delivering energy through an electrode at the end of a catheter that has been threaded through a vein or artery to . . . [Full Text of this Article]