Effectiveness of Ripple Mapping in Atrial Tachycardia Ablation

Tachycardia\'s (fast heart rhythms) can lead to troublesome palpitations, dizziness, blackouts and breathlessness. They are caused either by a cluster of abnormal cells within the heart, or an electrical short circuit which rotates rapidly around the heart. Sometimes these can be controlled with tablets, though owing to side effects many patients want something else. Many tachycardia\'s can be cured by a procedure known as an \"ablation\". In essence, either the focus of abnormal cells or the narrowest point of the short circuit causing the abnormal heart rhythm (the source) is electrically destroyed (burnt) resulting in restoration of the normal heart beat. One form of tachycardia is known is Atrial Tachycardia (AT). These arise from the top two chambers of the heart (the atrium). Interestingly, this problem is frequently seen in patients who have previously undergone an ablation or surgical procedure for a condition called Atrial Fibrillation. In others the reason for its occurrence is unknown. Current strategies to find the \"source\" during an ablation procedure are technically challenging resulting in long procedure times. Sometimes the wrong source is found resulting in ablation at the incorrect site. Ripple Mapping (RM) is a novel system that Investigators at Imperial College are looking to study. RM displays electrical information within the heart as a series of bars coming out of the chamber, with each bar representing signals travelling down the heart. By seeing the pattern of electrical information, they believe it will show the pattern of the tachycardia better than conventional techniques. In a previous retrospective study that they conducted, RM found the source of the tachycardia in 80% of the maps, compared to only 50% with the current system. Investigators at Imperial College have identified why they did not get 100% and they believe that, in future, RM will find the source of the tachycardia first time, and every time.