A novel non-invasive technology to improve outcomes of catheter ablation for Ventricular Tachycardia

Dr Minh Duc Nguyen, University of Sydney

2023 Postdoctoral Fellowship

Years funded: 2024 - 2025

Patients surviving heart attack are implanted with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) to prevent death from ventricular tachycardia (VT), but repetitive shocks from ICDs will cause myocardial dysfunction and increase mortality by 5 folds. Cardiac radiofrequency (RF) ablation can reduce significantly recurrent shocks by applying heat to the scar created by the heart attack and removing the composition responsible for VT. However, the ablation failure rate is still too high (> 50%) due to the frequent miss-locations of spots needed for ablation or inadequate RF power delivery to the spots. This project will introduce a potentially low-cost non-invasive solution that is able to: (1) locate scars accurately, (2) determine scar’s compositions (fat, calcification) associated with VT circuits, and (3) guide the ablation in real-time to optimize safety and efficacy. If successful, RF ablation will be much more efficient and reliable to minimise ICD shocks and drug usage, reduce the lifetime treatment cost and improve quality of life