Cardiac Electrophysiology

Cardiac Electrophysiology is the science of elucidating, diagnosing, and treating the electrical activities of the heart. The term is usually used to describe studies of such phenomena by invasive (intracardiac) catheter recording of spontaneous activity as well as of cardiac responses to programmed electrical stimulation (PES). These studies are performed to assess complex arrhythmias, elucidate symptoms, evaluate abnormal electrocardiograms, assess risk of developing arrhythmias in the future, and design treatment. These procedures increasingly include therapeutic methods (typically radiofrequency ablation) in addition to diagnostic and prognostic procedures. Other therapeutic modalities employed in this field include antiarrhythmic drug therapy and implantation of pacemakers and automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (AICD)

Heart Facts

Heart disease is the number one killer in America, accounting for one of every five deaths, or about half a million people in the country. Every 26 seconds an American will suffer a coronary event, and every minute someone will die fron one, according to the American Heart Association. That's more than the number of deaths each year from breast cancer, lung cancer, stroke, or AIDS combined, according to Sudden Cardiac Arrest Coalition.

The American heart association touts ablation as the preferred treatment for many types of rapid heartbeats, with a success rate of over 90 percent and a low risk of complications. Patients who have this done can usually resume normal activities in a few days. It causes little or no discomfort and is done under mild sedation with local anesthesia.