We have several new questions this month! Please take a look and let me know if you can help with the following topics: 1) job description for an RCIS in the EP lab, 2) data collection and quality assurance in the EP lab, 3) anesthesia utilization, and 4) recycling platinum tips. If you would like to respond, please email us at eplabdigest@hotmail.com or go to www.eplabdigest.com and click on the email discussion group link. Remember, when posting or responding to the discussion group, please let me know if you would like your name, location, and/or email address listed as well — that way you will get more instant results! We hope to hear from you soon!

At the Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute in Miami, Florida, electrophysiologist Efrain Gonzalez, MD, has been performing cryoablation on atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) patients with a 98 percent success rate. In this feature interview, learn about his cryo techniques, including his six-minute lesion.

In recent research, Drs. Jonathan Drezner and Kenneth Rogers studied the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in young athletes in intercollegiate sports. Interestingly, they found that early defibrillation and resuscitation efforts had little effect on the survival outcome of these athletes. In addition, they note that there is currently no universally accepted system to detect SCA in these young athletes in the U.S. In this article, I asked Dr. Drezner what he thinks needs to be done to help detect at-risk athletes sooner, and see what other type of research is needed to learn more about SCA in young athletes. Jonathan Drezner, MD is Associate Professor, Team Physician, and Associate Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) was once thought to be exceedingly rare and was inevitably tied to a very poor prognosis. Today we know it to be the most common genetic cardiac condition, affecting 1 in 500 people,^1–3 and one that is compatible with a normal lifespan in most patients. However, HCM can cause significant symptoms, impaired quality of life, and disability in some patients. Unfortunately, HCM is also the leading cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) on the athletic playing field, and for this reason as well as others discussed in this article, misconceptions have invaded the popular media about the true face of this complex disease.

EP Lab Digest Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Cohen and colleague Dennis Sheridan, MBA, CHE, address the proposed hospital inpatient payment system changes by CMS. Also included in this feature is an editorial from EP Lab Digest board member Linda Moulton, RN, MS.

How has wearing lead aprons in the lab affected your health? Author Daniel Dindy, RCIS, wore lead aprons in the lab for 14 years; today he suffers from pain in his knee, back, and spine. This is his story.