The field of Cardiac Electrophysiology has evolved significantly in the last few years, offering promising new ways of treating and managing heart conditions, including arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac death or SCD. SCD is the most common cause of death in the United States, claiming 450,000 lives each year, more than breast and lung cancer, stroke and AIDS combined. With cardiac arrest, electrical impulses in the heart cause the heart to beat rapidly or fibrillate. The condition is called arrhythmia and it eventually makes the heart stop beating.
Elie Haddad, M.D., Interventional Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at Kendall Regional Medical Center is an expert on this dangerous condition. “Treatment options now include simple and complex minimally-invasive procedures such as electrophysiology studies and catheter ablations,” he says. “These studies use real time 3D mapping systems that allow electrophysiologists to identify different types of arrhythmias in any chamber of the heart, and to ablate or cauterize areas of the heart responsible for them.”
Much of the focus has been on treating atrial fibrillation, which is the most common sustained arrhythmia. “A lot of work has been published in the last five years about targeting and curing atrial fibrillation,” Dr. Haddad continues. “At Kendall Regional Medical Center, we are in the planning stages of building a state-of-the-art electrophysiology facility, which will include all the latest equipment that will allow delivery of all those exciting new ways to treat arrhythmias.”
Other treatment options include implantable cardiac devices such as pacemakers, internal defibrillators, and in some cases chronic resynchronization therapy devices for patients with advanced heart failure. Automated Implantable Defibrillators have been shown to prevent sudden cardiac death better than any medical therapy available.
Who is most at risk for suffering SCD? “People at risk for SCD are those with a previous episode of cardiac arrest, familial causes, and most commonly those with a left ventricular ejection fraction or LVEF, which affects less than 35% of the population,” says Dr. Haddad. “If the heart muscle is weak, either from previous heart attacks or viral infections, this causes electrical instability and increases the potential for ventricular arrhythmias.”
In such patients, prophylactic insertion of an AICD can decrease mortality by at least 30%. Cardiac electrophysiologists are trained to implant, program, manage and troubleshoot those implantable devices. Together, electrophysiologists, cardiologists, primary doctors, and patients, can save many lives from SCD by continuing to raise awareness of this little known, yet fatal, problem.
The field of Cardiac Electrophysiology has evolved significantly in the last few years, offering promising new ways of treating and managing heart conditions, including arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac death or SCD. SCD is the most common cause of death in the United States, claiming 450,000 lives each year, more than breast and lung cancer, stroke and AIDS combined. With cardiac arrest, electrical impulses in the heart cause the heart to beat rapidly or fibrillate. The condition is called arrhythmia and it eventually makes the heart stop beating. 
