PhD defence Santiago Horacio Rivera

Keywords: Papillary Muscles, Ventricular Arrhythmias, Arrhythmia Mechanisms, Heart Anatomy

"Papillary-Muscles Arrhythmias of The Left Ventricle of the Heart"

This research focuses on understanding and treating a specific, complex type of heart rhythm disorder where abnormal electrical signals originate from the papillary muscles (two small, cone-shaped muscles inside the left ventricle of the heart). While standard treatments like catheter ablation (using radiofrequency energy to eliminate the problematic tissue) are effective for simpler, single-origin arrhythmias, the research found that these techniques often provide inconsistent results when the arrhythmia is more complex ("multiform") or originates from multiple sites. The dissertation demonstrates that these complex cases are often tied to a specific anatomical triad affecting the papillary muscles and left ventricular architecture in aparently normal hearts: multi-stranded papillary muscles, excessive web-like muscle structures (trabeculation) in the heart, and an increased number of papillary muscules connections. These connections may act like hidden electrical pathways or impulse initiators by multiple mechanisms, allowing signals to spread and change shapes, which explains why they are so challenging to map and treat. 

Click here for the live stream.