The advent of pulsed field ablation (PFA) will revolutionise the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), Tom de Potter (Aalst, Belgium) tells Cardiac Rhythm News, discussing the future of the treatment of the condition.
PFA utilises a controlled electric field to ablate and scar cardiac tissue through a process called irreversible electroporation (IRE). Ablation today means destroying tissue by either freezing or heating it, and this means there are thermal effects and there is also collateral damage to the surrounding tissue. In contrast with that, PFA achieves “something quite revolutionary”—tissue specific ablation. “We can select which tissue we want to destroy without impacting any of the surrounding tissue,” says De Potter.
De Potter is an investigator in the inspIRE prospective, multicentre, non-randomised study evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the Varipulse catheter and Trupulse generator (Biosense Webster) which use PFA in treating symptomatic drug refractory recurrent paroxysmal AF. In this interview he discusses the early findings of the trial, as well as considering the important questions to be answered around PFA.
“If pulsed field ablation delivers on everything that the technology promises to bring to the lab it will no doubt revolutionise the treatment of atrial fibrillation,” he comments, adding: “This is not just my opinion, it is the opinion of the vast majority of people practising atrial fibrillation today.”
