WVU Heart and Vascular Institute physicians have become the first in the state and region to utilize a new technology, Volta’s AF-Xplorer, to guide atrial fibrillation ablation. The technology personalizes the ablation approach.
Atrial fibrillation is a condition where the heart’s electrical system causes rapid and irregular heartbeats. Symptoms can include lack of energy, shortness of breath, palpitations, chest discomfort and lightheadedness. It is also linked to poor life quality, heart failure, stroke and death. Ablation is a technique that neutralizes diseased atrial tissues.
David Schwartzman, M.D., chief of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, likened the traditional ablation approach to an educated guess. “Given that disease often occurs in the same atrial regions among patients, if we ablate those regions, we are often successful,” he said. “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, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, addresses this challenge by analyzing electrical signals from within the heart during atrial fibrillation, recorded immediately before the ablation procedure. Using artificial intelligence, it creates a patient-specific set of atrial targets for the surgeon to use immediately.
The first patient was treated at WVU Medicine on August 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,” 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.
