Letter from the Section Editor: Innovative Techniques

DOI: 10.19102/icrm.2011.020311

Samuel J. Asirvatham, MD, FHRS, FACC

Editor-in-Chief

Innovative Techniques

Innovation is an integral multifaceted component of cardiac electrophysiology. Through the course of our fascinating specialties evolution, new thinking to explain observed phenomenon, contrary to expected results, and the development of new technology has been essential.

I am delighted to introduce the “Innovative Techniques” section of the journal. Manuscripts, reviews, and illustrative images that highlight new solutions to existing problems, new techniques that have brought to light new problems, and new techniques that have brought to light new problems will be presented. Such innovations may include a hitherto unrecognized diagnostic maneuver to define the mechanism of tachycardia or a novel device specifically developed to provide an altogether new method of treating cardiac arrhythmia.

The first article in this section is an intriguing manuscript that describes the first in vivo use of a technology to assess lesion formation with radiofrequency ablation. While we have long recognized the limitations of the poor surrogates that we presently use to know whether we are creating adequate lesions (temperature, impedance drop, microbubbles, etc.), a comprehensive, easy-to-use, and definitive imaging technique has not been forthcoming.

It is particularly appropriate that the first manuscript in this section is submitted by Dr. Mauricio Arruda (corresponding author). Dr. Arruda exemplifies the spirit of innovation in electrophysiology and consistent “out of the box” thinking that later has eventually proved clinically useful. His pioneering ideas have spanned from appreciating the role of the coronary sinus musculature in arrhythmogenesis to the early appreciation of the utility of the coronary venous system and the epicardial space as therapeutic vantage points for both ablation and device therapy.

We hope that this article and future submissions to this section with inspire a new generation of electrophysiologists to provide the innovations necessary for tomorrow’s patients.

Samuel J. Asirvatham, MD, FHRS, FACC
E-mail: asirvatham.samuel@mayo.edu
Consultant, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases
and Internal Medicine, Division of Pediatric Cardiology
Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Rochester, MN