Abbott Laboratories announced it has introduced in Canada the EnSite™ X EP System with EnSite Omnipolar Technology (OT), a new cardiac mapping platform designed to help physicians better treat abnormal heart rhythms, also known as cardiac arrhythmias. This new platform allows for the creation of a 3D model of the patient's cardiac anatomy in real-time, improving how physicians identify and then treat areas of the heart where abnormal rhythms originate. Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario, is the first hospital in Canada to use the new cardiac mapping system.

Increasingly, physicians are turning to cardiac ablation to treat cardiac arrhythmias because – unlike medication – the therapy treats the condition at the source by disrupting the area of the heart generating abnormal heart beats. Cardiac mapping is critical to successful ablation therapy because highly precise, accurate and detailed images of the heart allow physicians to determine the best location to deploy therapy safely and effectively. Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common arrhythmia the EnSite X EP System with EnSite OT can help treat, is an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots in the heart.

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, approximately 200,000 Canadians have AF. If left untreated, arrhythmias like AF may eventually lead to heart failure or stroke. Abbott's proprietary EnSite OT was researched and tested in Toronto, Ontario, in partnership with the Nanthakumar Laboratory, a research lab at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health Network (UHN). It has the ability to map one million points in the heart, accurately representing each heartbeat and providing precise location of required treatment areas.

Since 2014, Dr. Nanthakumar's team at the Thomas I. (Toby) Hull Centre of Excellence in Heart Rhythm Disease at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, has worked tirelessly to prove the science behind the OT and define the clinical applications to be easily understood and utilized by electrophysiologists. Dr. Nanthakumar worked closely with engineers and scientists from Abbott, to bring the EnSite OT to life, via software on this next generation cardiac mapping system. This technology's assessments of heart rhythms instantly offers physicians critical information including local electrogram amplitude, activation direction, and accurate wave speed.

In designing the EnSite X EP System with EnSite OT, Abbott created the platform to be upgradable via new software, ensuring physicians consistently have access to the latest technology without the need for entirely new systems. In addition, the EnSite X EP System with EnSite OT is the first mapping system that allows physicians to choose between two methods of cardiac visualization. Traditional mapping systems use either unipolar or bipolar measurement principles. While unipolar measurements have multiple advantages, including direction and speed, bipolar measurements provide local signal measuring to pinpoint areas of concern.

The EnSite X EP System with EnSite OT brings the best of both measurement principles together to maximize data collection.