Electrophysiology

Electricity usually flows through the heart in a pattern that is ordered and regular. The hearts electrical system initiates contractions or beats of the heart muscle. In a healthy heart, the electrical conduction system produces a carefully coordinated contraction which enables the heart to function effectively as a pump and push blood around the body.

Disruption of one or more of the electrical pathways may result in a cardiac arrhythmia or unusual rhythm which will usually cause the heart to beat less effectively. Whilst some arrhythmias are life threatening, others can be relatively harmless. Symptoms of arrhythmia may include persistent palpitations (being aware of your heart beating), dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath and fainting.

The precise nature and, if possible, cause of the abnormal heart rhythm need to be diagnosed to enable selection of the best treatment. As part of his or her investigation into possible cardiac arrhythmia, your doctor may recommend a test called Cardiac electrophysiology study (EPS). Whilst EPS is a fairly invasive test and involves catheters being placed in the heart, it allows your specialist to collect and analyse very precise data about your hearts electrical activity.

Non-invasive tests such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) or a holter monitor (which involves monitoring the hearts rhythm over a 24-48 hour period) can provide valuable information about the hearts electrical activity. However, in many cases the arrhythmia is intermittent and therefore not captured at the time of these tests, which only record activity during the time of attachment.

During an EPS study the specialist can actually provoke an arrhythmia which then enables extremely precise data to be collected about the abnormal electrical activity. It is also possible that the problem can be treated during the study. This may involve using a special catheter to ablate or remove a cluster of cells responsible for ...