New Mapping System Improves Heart Rhythm Management

Thanks to omnipolar technology (OT), a new cardiac mapping system provides 360-degree views of the heart, regardless of catheter orientation.

The Abbott (Abbott Park, IL, USA) EnSite X EP with OT system is a dual-technology (unipolar and bipolar) platform that provides highly detailed anatomical models and maps to provide efficient treatment of a wide range of arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT). The cardiac mapping system is flexible, allowing physicians to map heart chambers with any electrophysiology catheter and with minimal fluoroscopy demands, thus reducing potential for risks associated with excessive radiation exposure.


The proprietary EnSite OT can map one million points in the heart by leveraging the Advisor HD Grid Catheter, providing true, highly detailed three-dimensional (3D) maps of the heart to help physicians identify and then treat the areas where abnormal rhythms originate. The system comes with EnSite VoXel Mode, allowing users to collect data using magnetic-based coordinates that provide accurate and linear visualization. EnSite X EP with OT is also software upgradable, ensuring consistent access to the latest technology, without the need for entirely new systems.

“As ablation therapy is increasingly used for patients battling cardiac arrhythmias, new, innovative and advanced cardiac mapping and imaging tools are essential to help physicians provide the best outcomes for their patients,” said Mike Pederson, senior vice president of electrophysiology at Abbott. “We developed the EnSite X System with OT to enhance the utility of our unique Advisor HD Grid catheter and allow doctors to quickly and accurately create real-time, stable, three-dimensional models of the heart.”

“To continue improving outcomes for our patients, we need a system with speed, stability, and accuracy. Abbott's new EnSite X System with EnSite OT, utilizing the Advisor HD Grid catheter, embodies the latest innovation available to support the treatment of complex and challenging cardiac arrhythmias,” said cardiac electrophysiologist Amin Al-Ahmad, MD, of St. David's Medical Center (Austin, TX, USA). “Abbott has provided us with a system that not only supports safe and effective treatment, but enhances the accuracy of maps, allowing for a clearer understanding of what is going on in the heart and what areas need to be targeted with ablation to treat arrythmias.”

Cardiac mapping collects and displays electroanatomical maps of the heart, and includes activation, isochronal, propagation, or voltage maps. Isochronal vector maps are commonly used to study the mechanisms and guide the ablative therapies of arrhythmias; activation maps display local activation time, color-coded and overlaid on reconstructed 3D geometry; propagation maps show a dynamic color display of the propagation of the activation wavefront across the reconstructed chamber; and voltage map displays the peak-to-peak amplitude at each site.

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