Recent Advances in Cardiac Electrophysiology

Cardiology, being a prime medical speciality has always been in the forefront of inventing new diagnostic techniques, medical therapies, interventional procedures, medical imaging, continuous monitoring systems and more.  Among the many recent advancements, leadless pacemaker and thermocool smarttouch catheter offer a promising approach in treating problems with the heart's electrical conduction system.

Thermocool Smarttouch catheter: In a healthy heart, the electrical impulses are generated from the sinoatrial (SA) node which controls the speed or rhythm of beats. Any disruption or error in this conduction process leads to arrhythmia resulting in either too fast heart rate or too slow heart rate. Cardiac ablation is a medical procedure that is often preferred by the physicians to treat arrhythmias for those patients who don’t respond positively to drug therapy. During this catheterization procedure, continuous monitoring and radio frequency energy is used to scar the sources of abnormal heart rhythms. However, the procedure can fail sometimes because of inadequate lesion formation. Thermocool smarttouch catheter – an innovative discovery in electrophysiology focuses to resolve this drawback as it is integrated with contact-force sensing technology to provide detailed evaluation of catheter-to-myocardial contact force and catheter stability. This will guide the physicians to apply the stable force to the tissues without any risk of injury or complications.

Leadless pacemaker:Cardiologists have been recommending pacemakers for most of the patients suffering with bradyarrhythmias (too slow heart beat) or heart block. Taking over the job of the SA node, this electrical device restores electrical conduction through the heart. A surgical incision has to be made in the chest to place the pacemaker. Leads are connected to it which acts as a conduit for the delivery of electrical pulses that stimulate the heart functioning. However, acute and chronic complications arise whenever the surgical pocket is infected or leads are displaced. That is why leadless pacing technologies have gained immense interest in the field of cardiology. Self-contained leadless pacemakers that are different from its conventional counterparts don’t require any surgical incision or leads and can be placed through a catheterization procedure. Trial results and findings support the use of this less-invasive pacemaker technology.

It can be said that the future of interventional cardiology and electrophysiology looks bright and ensures to improve the quality of patient’s life.