MORGANTOWN – Artificial intelligence-based technology may help WVU Medicine cardiologists more precisely treat atrial fibrillation (Afib) – an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm.
WVU Heart & Vascular Institute cardiologists are the first in the state and region to employ the Volta AF-Xplorer to enhance the treatment of Afib with catheter ablation.
Dr. David Schwartzman, director of Electrophysiology at WVU Heart & Vascular Institute explains the process. (Electrophysiologists specialize in dealing with the heart’s electrical system and abnormal heart rhythms.)
Afib occurs in the two upper chambers of the heart, the left and right atria, that are responsible for electrical guidance of the heart. It can lead to symptoms such as shortsightedness, lightheadedness, heart fluttering, pain and fatigue. About a third of patients have no idea they’re in Afib; others may have symptoms running from mild to crippling.
In catheter ablation, the catheter – about the width of a pen tip, is led up from the groin to the heart to either melt (radio frequency ablation) or freeze (cryoablation) the areas that typically cause the arrhythmia.
Just before the ablation, the electrodes on the catheter wire record the electrical signals in the atrial regions. “Traditionally we don’t pay much attention to those signals because we don’t know what to do with them. … So, catheter ablation largely remains an educated guess.”
They ablate – or neutralize – those areas and see what happens, he said. But an educated guess approach is far from perfect, so they hunt for add-on technologies to move toward perfect.
The AF-Xplorer by Volta Medical – its U.S. base is in Rhode Island – represents one promising technology, Schwartzman said. “Our hope is the Xplorer technology can decipher these complex signals by utilizing machine learning.”
They do the ablation, he said, then use AF-Xplorer to tell them where else to neutralize. Its AI-based knowledge provides a patient-specific set of targets to abate.
They performed the first ablation assisted by AF-Xplorer on Aug. 23, and another since, with other patients in the queue, Schwartzman said.
The AF-Xplorer comes as hardware that runs software that runs in parallel to their existing heart mapping system, he said.
“The hope is that this will result in outcomes that are better than educated guessing alone. Time will tell,” he said. Information from around the world suggests promise for it.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
