Ventricular fibrillation is responsible for 50,000 sudden cardiac deaths in France each year, i.e. one sudden death every 10 minutes. This is a death that we consider to be 'illegitimate', as it mainly strikes individuals with an intact or slightly altered heart, "too good to die".
Ventricular fibrillation manifests itself by a fast and disorganized electrical activation of the ventricles, with the immediate consequence of the loss of any effective cardiac contraction. Failure to intervene within 5 minutes can be fatal (sudden death) or lead to irreversible brain damage. The only treatment is an electric shock delivered by a defibrillator.
Ventricular fibrillation is associated with pre-existing heart disease (infarction, cardiomyopathy) but can occur in a healthy heart.
Liryc's clinicians have identified some of the triggers of sudden death by ventricular fibrillation.
These triggers are located in the heart, at the Purkinje network. This electrical network is essential for heart contraction.
The localized destruction of these sources of arrhythmia by thermoablation represents an innovative and curative approach to ventricular fibrillation in order to prevent sudden death.
Young patients with genetic predispositions or pure electrical dysfunctions may develop arrhythmia but majority of ventricular arrhythmia occur in association with structural heart disease. About 40% of sudden cardiac deaths occur as a complication of acute myocardial infarction and are potentially reducible through prevention of risk factors and coronary ischemia.
The major challenge today is the identification of high-risk individuals as the current survival rate is under 4%. This is an unacceptable situation given that these people, if identified, could be equipped with an implantable defibrillator or treated with anti-arrhythmic drugs.