About
Atrial Fibrillation & Interventional Electrophysiology

AI Generated Artwork by A.-S. Blau
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the world's most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia in adults.
37M
Number of AF patients worldwide.3
5.2M
No. of AF patients in the US, with an expected rise to 12M by 20504
About Arial Fibrillation with AI generated artwork
The heart beats are generated by the sino-atrial node, a small tissue region in the right atrium. The propagation of impulses to both upper chambers of the heart – i.e the two atria – causes them to contract and move the blood to the lower chambers of the heart, a.k.a the ventricles.

AF is caused by abnormal electrical impulses forming anywhere in the atria. AF may be recorded on an electrocardiogram (ECG). The beating heart of AF patients is fast and irregular.
Physicians classify AF according to the duration of arrhythmia episodes. Brief episodes correspond to paroxysmal AF. Longer episodes are known as persistent AF.

The treatment of AF may involve drug therapy, cardioversion, or a catheter ablation procedure.
About Interventional Electrophysiology graphic
Interventional electrophysiology is a surgical specialty. It requires multiple years of experience and consists of conducting intra-cardiac procedures to diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation.

During the procedure, the electrophysiologist introduces catheters in the veins and convey them to the heart.
These catheters are first used to measure electrical intracardiac signals and create precise 3D maps of the heart.

Then, the identified pathological regions (drivers) that are perpetuating the arrhythmia are ablated (with radiofrequency or cryoablation) in order to restore the normal sinus rhythm.