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- In order for the heart to function well,
it has to be pumping in a very coordinated fashion.
For that all to work together,
there's a complex electrical system inside the heart.
- The electrical signals
are the foundation of the heartbeat.
An electrical signal leading the a squeeze of the heart
is like a dance.
The electricity of the heart
has to move in a coordinated fashion,
so that the blood can move through nice and smoothly.
- That coordination provides the normal rhythm,
or squeezing pattern for the heart.
And when that goes awry,
that's what we call an abnormal rhythm, or an arrhythmia.
- Abnormal electrical impulses
can lead to a variety of symptoms in patients,
and it can even lead to heart failure over time in some patients.
- I'm Charlotte and I'm 10 years old.
I do dance, like ballet and Irish dance.
- The first time she had an episode
was when she was dancing.
She was doing Irish dance, which is very aerobic at times,
and she just stopped and said
"My heart's beating really fast."
We checked her pulse, it was definitely going very fast,
and it just wasn't slowing down
the normal way you would think it would slow down.
- It felt like it was popping out
and it was going super fast
and I could feel it when I put my hand over it.
- Charlotte's symptoms were caused by SVT,
or superventricular tachycardia,
which is an abnormally fast heart rhythm.
So she used both the normal circuit of her heart
and also this extra electrical pathway in her heart
to create a circuit,
that gave her palpitations that were not dangerous
in and of themselves,
but understandably very uncomfortable for her.
- [Charlotte] Sometimes it would just come
and I would have to stop.
It's harder for me to dance,
concentrating on what I'm meant to be doing
instead of trying to concentrate
and trying to make it stop.
- It was nerve wracking, however,
Dr. Beach was very calming with explaining
exactly what was happening.
This is a condition that could be
potentially very dangerous,
but this is how we're gonna deal with it.
- We have special pediatric cardiologists
who deal with the electrical system of the heart.
You can think of them as the cardiac electricians,
if you will, and we call them electrophysiologists.
- [Dr. Beach] Charlotte underwent a procedure
that we call an electrophsyiology study and ablation.
We use catheters to access blood vessels
at the top of the legs to get to the inside of the heart
through the body.
We use these catheters to find
the abnormal electrical signals in the heart
and then create a little scar right at the exact area,
so that the electricity can't move
at that particular site.
We start by making some geometry of the heart,
so that we actually have a 3D heart model
we're looking at,
and we watch our catheters, and we map the electricity,
so that we can actually see where the electricity moves through the heart
and we see the normal electricity
as well as the abnormal electricity in this way.
- [Heather] With the ablation procedure,
she would only have to be in for a day or two at most,
and it would be through the femoral veins,
so they don't have to open up her heart
or anything like that, a very safe procedure.
- [Dr. Asnes] The programs within the children's heart center
span everything from heart rhythm abnormalities
like arrhythmias to heart failure,
where the heart muscle itself is not working,
and perhaps the patient needs a heart transplant.
It's really a comprehensive program
that takes care of patients and families
with heart problems that got diagnosed,
perhaps when they're in utero,
and we will manage those heart problems
all the way through til adulthood,
when our patients are hopefully having their own families.
- [Dr. Beach] Charlotte's doing awesome.
She hasn't had any symptoms
since she had her procedure.
- [Heather] She's doing great.
Since the surgery, she is back to her normal self.
We just don't have to worry about anything.
- [Charlotte] It feels better than worrying about
whenever I do jumps and stuff.
Is it gonna happen, is it not gonna happen?
We don't really even think about it much anymore.
- [Dr. Beach] I just feel so honored
to be able to play a part
in allowing Charlotte to not even have this
be an issue for her.