When Jaden Rascon started fourth grade earlier this week, she didn’t have to worry any longer about her heartbeat suddenly racing – thanks to an innovative procedure at CHOC Children’s.

“I feel good,” the 9-year-old says. “Before, when my heart would speed up, it was very hard to breathe, and it would give me headaches. But now it’s all gone because I got the procedure.”

Jaden recently underwent an outpatient electrophysiology procedure at CHOC to cure her arrhythmia. The experience was short, non-invasive and – even better – required no radiation.

Her procedure is a landmark achievement that signals a new direction for electrophysiology, a field that has already dramatically changed cardiology.  And now, an electrophysiology procedure with no radiation marks an even safer and less invasive cure for a common ailment.

The successful radiation-free electrophysiology procedure is a credit to the skill and expertise of Dr. Anjan Batra, medical director of electrophysiology at the CHOC Children’s Heart Institute, as well as the state-of-the-art cardio mapping equipment inside the hospital’s new Bill Holmes Tower.

“This has really changed our field,” Dr. Batra said. “We can do so much more, and do it better and safer. It’s great to be in a field where we not only treat, but also cure. It’s great to help a patient so that they don’t have to see a doctor for the condition again.”

Dr. Batra performed the procedure using a three-dimensional cardio mapping system. The device uses catheters with locator sensors that transmit signals from inside the heart. This allowed Dr. Batra to visualize the beating heart by using these magnetic sources as reference points, rather than relying on fluoroscopy – an imaging technique that uses X-rays to obtain images of internal organs while they’re in motion – to reveal the catheters’ positions.

Just weeks after her procedure, Jaden’s quality of life has already improved.

Last November, Jaden began complaining of a rapid heartbeat, says her mother, Vera.  A normal resting heart rate for children ages 7 to 9 is between 70 and 110 beats per minute, but Jaden experienced a heart rate of 225 beats per minute during one emergency department visit. She was then referred to CHOC, and was subsequently determined to be a good candidate for an electrophysiology procedure.

“I was nervous at first,” Jaden says, “but then I knew that they were studying the heart for a long time so nothing would go wrong.”

Typically, up to three patients are diagnosed with arrhythmias each day at CHOC, Dr. Batra says.  About 25 years ago, the only cure for these conditions was open heart surgery, and many patients simply tolerated the condition or relied on medication.

Now, the hospital has used electrophysiology procedures to cure more than 100 children with arrhythmias each year, and that figure is expected to increase as awareness grows among parents and the medical community, says Dr. Batra, one of about 200 pediatric electrophysiologists worldwide.

Learn more about CHOC’s electrophysiology services.

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