Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardias using remote magnetic navigation: a consecutive case-control study

Remote Magnetic Navigation for VT Ablation.

This study aimed to compare acute and late outcomes of VT ablation using the magnetic navigation system (MNS) to manual techniques (MAN) in patients with (SHD) and without (NSHD) structural heart disease.

Ablation data of 113 consecutive patients (43 SHD, 70 NSHD) with ventricular tachycardia treated with catheter ablation at our center were analyzed. Success rate, complications, procedure, fluoroscopy, and ablation times, and recurrence rates were systematically recorded for all patients.

A total of 72 patients were included in the MNS group and 41 patients were included in the MAN group. Patient age, gender, and right ventricular and left ventricular VT were equally distributed. Acute success was achieved in 59 patients in the MNS group (82%) versus 27 (66%) patients in the MAN group (P = 0.046). Overall procedural time (177 ± 79 vs 232 ± 99 minutes, P < 0.01) and mean patient fluoroscopy time (27 ± 19 vs 56 ± 32 minutes, P < 0.001) were all significantly lower using MNS. In NSHD pts, higher acute success was achieved with MNS (83,7% vs 61.9%, P = 0.049), with shorter procedure times (151 ± 57 vs 210 ± 96, P = 0.011), whereas in SHD-VT these were not significantly different. No major complications occurred in the MNS group (0%) versus 1 cardiac tamponade and 1 significantly damaged ICD lead in the MAN group (4.9%, NS). After follow-up (20 ± 11 vs 20 ± 10 months, NS), VT recurred in 14 pts (23.7%) in the MNS group versus 12 pts (44.4%) in the MAN group (P = 0.047).

The use of MNS offers advantages for ablation of NSHD-VT, while it offers similar efficacy for SHD-VT. (J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol, Vol. 23, pp. 948-954, September 2012).