New tech could target and treat irregular heartbeats

The eye of a hurricane (left) bears some resemblance to the localized source of an arrhythmia (right) in a patient with atrial fibrillation. In a new study, ablation targeting these rotors successfully stopped the arrhythmia.

(Credit: UCSD/UCLA)

Researchers are reporting that they have found, for the first time, that tiny electrical spinning tops ("rotors") within the heart cause atrial fibrillation (AF), a type of arrhythmia in which the heartbeat is faster and irregular.

What's more, they found that by targeting the so-called eye of the storm, they could actually slow or even terminate the AF, the multidisciplinary team from UC San Diego, UCLA, and Indiana University reports in the July issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Today, catheter ablation is a common therapy used to treat AF, but because the sources of these arrhythmias have been so elusive, its success has been limited.

Now that the researchers have been able to map out these so-called hurricanes within the heart using their new technique, which they call Focal Impulse and Roto... [Read more]