WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- The heart has very specific electrical pathways,

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essentially electrical wiring,

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very similar to what you
would have in a house.

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The impulse goes down those
electrical wires

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and those wires basically plug into the
different cells of the heart

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and when the impulse gets to those cells,

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it depolarizes them in a sense,
it gives them a little jolt

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and this causes the cells to contract

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and ultimately this causes
the heart to contract

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and pump the blood into
the remainder of the body.

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It's very important for the heart

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to have a very uniform
and consistent rhythm.

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Just as in a house, you could have a room

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that has faulty electricity,
when you turn on the switch,

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instead of getting light,

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you get a light bulb that flickers,

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you could get short-circuiting in different chambers of the heart

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and what that manifests as,
is a racing or an irregularity

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in the electrical function of the heart.

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This is what an arrhythmia is.

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It is a disturbance in the
electricity of the heart.

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The short circuit and the
lower chambers of the heart

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can cause the heart to
race very, very fast

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up to the point that the
heart can suddenly stop.

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There are also arrhythmias that occur

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in the upper chambers of the heart,

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but instead of being
localized to one location,

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there are multiple different circuits

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all going on at the same time.

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And this is what atrial fibrillation is.

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The symptoms primarily
involve palpitations.

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Feeling that the heart is skipping,

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feeling that the heart is very erratic.

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Often they involve feeling very tired

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and fatigue and unable
to do regular activities

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and therefore it becomes important

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to alleviate the symptoms and
improving the quality of life.

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The advent of ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation

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has really revolutionized the field.

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We go in with catheters through the vein into the heart,

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 the catheter has a magnetic tip.

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It allows us to detect electricity.

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So we're able to measure through
the tip of that catheter,

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where those short circuits are.

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We can localize them
and then cauterize them.

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We take a lot of pride at Yale
in refining our technology

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and our techniques for the management of atrial fibrillation

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and it really has been a great ride.

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It's been nothing but revolutionary

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in terms of our ability to treat arrhythmias,

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to restore normal rhythm
in cases that in the past,

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we would never have dreamed
that we'd be able to.