Treatment of macro-re-entrant atrial tachycardia based on electroanatomic mapping: identification and ablation of the mid-diastolic isthmus

This multicentre prospective study evaluated the ability of electroanatomic mapping (EAM) using a specific parameter setting to identify clearly the mid-diastolically activated isthmus (MDAI) and guide ablation of macro-re-entrant atrial tachycardia (MAT). METHODS AND RESULTS: Consecutive patients with MAT, different from typical isthmus-dependent atrial flutter, were enrolled. EAM was performed using a specific setting of the window of interest, calculated to identify the MDAI and guide ablation of this area. Sixty-five patients exhibiting 81 MATs (mean cycle length 308 +/- 68 ms) were considered. Thirty-two (49.2%) had previous heart surgery. In 79 of 81 morphologies (97.5%), EAM reconstructed 95.9 +/- 4.3% of the tachycardia circuit and identified the MDAI; 23 of the 79 morphologies (29.1%) were double-loop re-entry. Mapping of two morphologies was incomplete due to MAT termination after catheter bumping. In 73 of 79 mapped morphologies (92.4%), abolition of the MAT was obtained by 13.2 +/- 12.4 applications. During the 14 +/- 4 month follow-up, MAT recurred in 4 of the successfully treated patients (6.8%). CONCLUSION: EAM using a specific parameter setting proved highly effective at identifying the MDAI in MAT, even in patients with previous surgery and multiple re-entrant loops. Ablation of the MDAI yielded acute arrhythmia suppression with low rate of recurrence during follow-up.