New technology enables tailored treatment for patients with cardiac arrhythmias.
UNC Medical Center is the first in the Mid Atlantic U.S. to treat patients with the EnSite Precision™ cardiac mapping system, a next–generation platform designed to provide automation, flexibility and accuracy for diagnostic mapping used in ablation procedures to treat patients with cardiac arrhythmias. UNC Medical Center was among the first sites in the United States to utilize this technology, which recently received FDA clearance.

When physicians use catheter ablation to treat cardiac arrhythmias, several long, flexible tubes with wires – called catheters – are inserted into the heart. Diagnostic catheters record and “map” electrical information from the heart. The Abbott EnSite Precision cardiac mapping system provides highly detailed anatomical models and maps to enable diagnosis of a wide range of arrhythmias, guide therapy and expand procedural options. Ablation catheters deliver radiofrequency energy. The heat from the catheter creates a lesion or scar on the tissue where the abnormal heartbeats originate. As a result, this tissue is no longer capable of conducting or sustaining the arrhythmia.

“We have been using an earlier cardiac mapping system here at UNC for several years. The new mapping system is much faster – what used to take us hours now can be done in minutes – and it enables us to treat more complex cases than we could before,” said Paul Mounsey, MD, PhD, the Sewell Family/McAllister Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Medicine and director of heart rhythm services for the UNC Center for Heart & Vascular Care.

“The technology in mapping systems is rapidly advancing. These new tools allow us to more rapidly understand complex arrhythmia circuits and have improved the efficacy of our procedures,” said Anil Gehi, MD, associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine and an electrophysiologist in the UNC Center for Heart & Vascular Care.

One of the distinctive features of the EnSite Precision cardiac mapping system is that it uses intelligent automation tools, which are designed to enable faster and more accurate high density maps allowing tailored treatment for a variety of cardiac arrhythmias, including complex cases. The ability to create rapid high–resolution models speeds up mapping time and minimizes fluoroscopic radiation exposure for both the patient and the clinicians.