Imaging With a Radio Tracer to Guide VT Ablations
Imaging With a Radio Tracer to Guide VT Ablations
Some patients are at risk for life-threatening fast heart rates. These can frequently be
 treated by using a catheter inside the heart to burn away the cells that create the fast
 heart rates. The purpose of this study is to image the nerves inside the heart of those
 patients. The investigators want to find out if abnormalities in the nervous system in the
 heart can help the physician to find the area that needs to be burnt away.
Ventricular tachycardia is the next frontier in cardiology. Patients that have scar in the
 heart (for example after heart attacks) are at an increased risk of developing ventricular
 tachycardia. In these patients ventricular tachycardia represents an electrical wave front
 that circulates in the heart muscle using the scar in the heart. An increasing number of
 patients with ventricular tachycardia require cauterization (burning away) of the tissue to
 treat this life-threatening condition. The goal of this cauterization or ablation is to
 destroy "highways of surviving tissue" inside the scar, that allow ventricular tachycardia to
 exist. However, this can be very lengthy procedure (>5 hours) that has only a moderate
 success in the long run. Therefore, new treatment approaches are needed to make this
 procedure better.

 The purpose of this study is to assess if radio tracers showing the nerve distribution in the
 heart (cardiac innervation) can be used in addition to the current technology ("voltage
 mapping") to identify the area that needs to be ablated (burnt away) to treat
 life-threatening fast heart rates (ventricular tachycardia)

 Certain patterns of nerve distribution in the heart (sympathetic cardiac innervation) have
 been shown to predict outcome for different heart diseases, like heart transplant, coronary
 artery disease, heart failure, arrhythmias. One substance that allows visualization of the
 cardiac innervation is 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG), which could provide
 additional information to understand and treat ventricular tachycardia.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients with ventricular arrhythmias requiring VT Ablation

 -  Patients must be 18 years of age or older

 -  Patient must be able to sign consent form

 -  Patient must be willing to come back for the 6 month visit for additional study
 procedures

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patient under 18 years old

 -  Inability to sign consent

 -  Pregnant Women