HRS expert panel video mostly about Pulsed Field Ablation

The Heart Rhythm Society 2021 conference published a video of a panel discussion entitled “Update from the Experts: Beyond Pulmonary Vein Isolation and the Promise of Pulsed Field Ablation”

Actually, as far as I could tell, discussion of PFA didn't start until around minute 36:40 of the video, when Dr. Douglas Gibson proceeded to discuss uses he is excited about. "it is probably the most exciting thing I've seen in the last ten years". The rest of the video is all PFA.

Gibson's presentation has been placed on Youtube by itself if you only have 11 minutes or so.

The panel discussion that followed Gibson featured Dr. Pierre Jais. Dr. Natale had a few things to say as well.

There was a bit of discussion about the cerebral microembolic signals (MESs) generated by the pulsed field technology. Natale had a paper out on this. It looks to have been retracted. Natale's paper noted that "MES burden is considered a surrogate marker for stroke risk and has never been reported [ until now ] during AF ablation with the novel pulsed field ablation (PFA) system." No one on the panel seemed overly concerned this will turn out to be a show stopper.

Keeping in mind that the Heart Rhythm society did not invite Mandrola to be on this panel, Mandrola has his doubts: "Before I had PFA ablation on my left atrium, I would want to see a large series of studies chronicling post-PFA MRI scans"

This technology seems incredible. Dr. Natale is quoted in MD Edge Cardiology:

“I’m very excited about PFA [pulsed field ablation]. It may make everything else obsolete,” “We need to see more efficacy data, but just for safety alone there is no reason to use anything else,”

HRS panelists noted that each manufacturer is coming up with their own variations of the technology.

Apparently the Farapulse PFA system is licensed for commercial use in the EU now.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2021 11:03AM by David_L.