Heart Rhythm

Hearts should have normal rhythm to their beats, but when these beats are out of synch, it causes inefficient pumping of blood. Irregular heart arrhythmias occur when the electrical signals that coordinate the heart's beats do not work properly. This can cause beats that are too fast (tachycardia), or too slow (bradycardia). Tachycardias include atrial fibrillation (AFib), supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia (VT). Bradycardias include sick sinus syndrome and conduction block. Electrophysiology arrhythmia treatments include medications, life style changes, and the EP lab interventions of catheter ablation, and implantable pacemakers or defibrillators.

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Dhanunjaya "DJ" Lakkireddy, MD, executive medical director for the Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute at HCA Midwest Health, professor of medicine at the University of Missouri, Columbia, deputy editor for the the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation, and serves on the HRS Board of Trustees and section steering committee chair for the ACC, explains the potentially devastating impact of Medicare cuts on electrophysiology (EP) and patient care.

VIDEO: Medicare cuts could devastate the field of electrophysiology

"By imposing a 35%-42% cut, [CMS] has essentially created a scenario where it is going to destroy electrophysiology as a field," explained Dhanunjaya "DJ" Lakkireddy, MD.

October 4, 2022
Affera Inc Medtronic $925 million catheter ablation atrial fibrillation (AFib)

Medtronic completes acquisition of heart rhythm tech company in a deal reportedly worth $925M

Affera’s portfolio includes interventional solutions such as the Affera Prism-1 mapping and navigation platform, designed to help electrophysiologists diagnose heart rhythm issues, and the Sphere-9 cardiac ablation catheter. 

August 31, 2022
ESC Congress 2022 European Society of Cardiology. 6 key sessions from ESC Congress 2022: TAVR mortality, AI vs. sonographers, radial vs. femoral access and more

6 key sessions from ESC Congress 2022: TAVR mortality, AI vs. sonographers, radial vs. femoral access and more

ESC Congress 2022, the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, was jam-packed with eye-opening new research from many of the leading voices in cardiovascular and vascular medicine. These six sessions were just some of the weekend's many highlights. 

August 29, 2022
Ancora Heart AccuCinch Ventricular Restoration System heart failure FDA

Regulatory Roundup: FDA clears AI-powered Apple Watch competitor, grants breakthrough designation to new heart failure device

Ancora Heart received the FDA’s breakthrough device designation for its AccuCinch Ventricular Restoration System, a new minimally invasive transcatheter device designed for the treatment of heart failure.

July 25, 2022
A large proportion of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) end up in emergency rooms (ERs), but there are inherent issues with most hospital ERs handing off these patients to electrophysiologists for followup care. The ER2EP Study presented at the 2022 HRS meeting found better results of there is an organized pathway for AF patients to follow. #AFib

New-look protocol boosts outcomes among AFib patients in the ER

A large proportion of patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib) end up in emergency rooms (ERs), but there are inherent issues with most hospital ERs handing off these patients to electrophysiologists for follow-up care.

May 2, 2022
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and its associated leads viewed on a X-ray. Old leads are often abandon in veins and new ones added, but a new study of 1 million patients at ACC22 showed there is higher mortality if a device becomes infected and the leads are left behind. Image from RSNA.

VIDEO: Lowering mortality rates from infected EP implantable cardiac devices

Sean Pokorney, MD, director of the arrhythmia core lab, Duke Clinical Research Institute, assistant professor of Medicine, Duke University, discusses a late-breaking ACC 2022 study that shows mortality is higher in patients with implantable electrophysiology (EP) device infections where the leads are not explanted.

April 11, 2022
Use of augmented reality and virtual reality to aid procedures and enhance clinician training is expected to see increasing use in the coming years in cardiology. Photo from Philips healthcare

VIDEO: 4 predictions on key cardiac technologies for the coming years

Mass General cardiologist and Harvard professor Ami Bhatt, MD, predicts upcoming paradigm shifts in cardiology over the next decade. 

March 24, 2022
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