Imaging for electrophysiological procedures

Abstract

Electrophysiology is one of the most rapidly growing area of cardiology. Currently >50,000 catheter ablations are performed in Europe every year and >200,000 patients receive a device for arrhythmia treatment, sudden death prevention, or cardiac resynchronization. The advantages and limitations of fluoroscopy are well known. The rapid development of implantable cardiac devices therapies and ablation procedures all depend on accurate and reliable imaging modalities for preprocedural assessments, intraprocedural guidance, detection of complications, and post-procedural assessment for the longitudinal follow-up of patients. Therefore, over the last decades, imaging become an integral part of electrophysiological procedures.