The long-term objective of this project is to identify the determinants of catheter ablation failure in AVnodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNNRT) and accessory pathways (AP). Recently, the NASPE CatheterAblation Registry showed that despite all the advances in mapping and ablation technology, the successrate of ablation has not improved between 1993 and 1998, suggesting that new strategies for selecting theablation target are needed.
The Specific Aim 1 of this project is to elucidate the causes of failed APablations. We hypothesize that the main cause of failure in AP ablation is inaccurate localization of the APwhen the AP has an oblique course. We will test this hypothesis by reversing the activation wavefront usingtwo different pacing sites to help identify an isolated AP potential, which will be targeted for ablation.
The Specific Aim 2 of this project is to elucidate the causes of failed AVNRT ablations. We postulate that themain cause of failed AVNRT ablation is that the reentrant circuit in AVNRT is not well understood. Ourworking hypothesis is that identification of the reentrant circuit and atrial connections in AVNRT will facilitateappropriate target selection and improve success in AVNRT ablation. We will systemically examine thereentrant circuit by (1) map the earliest retrograde atrial activation to help identify the retrograde limb of thecircuit in each variant of AVNRT. (2) establish the presence or absence of a lower common pathway in eachvariant of AVNRT to help localize the circuit. (3) deliver late atrial extrastimuli at different sites to identify theantegrade limb of the circuit. (4) ablate the reentrant circuit based on the mapping result to further confirmthe location of the circuit.My past research has focused on basic electrophysiology (ion channel related research). My immediatecareer goal is to utilize this project to successfully change my research direction from basic to clinicalelectrophysiology. My long-term goal is to be a 'linker' between basic and clinical electrophysiology andcontinue exploring the mechanism of cardiac arrhythmia.
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