Problems of this kind have been recognized for decades, but attempts at treating them have historically been relatively crude. Most of the common treatments were capable only of providing the grossest of improvements to those suffering from fibrillation. While these results were, in many cases, superior to leaving the issue untreated, they never addressed the fact that every such situation is unique.
In reality, the extent and character of a heart fibrillation will vary drastically from one patient to the next. Medical experts have recognized this for many years, but were previously consigned to accepting it as something that could not be addressed, given the relatively crudity of the therapeutic tools they had to work with.
That has changed quite a bit in recent years, though. Leveraging the power of a discipline known as electrophysiology, companies like abbott laboratories medical devices have developed more targeted and illuminating ways of studying the specifics of particular cases of fibrillation.
As can be seen at http://www.abbottep.com/ what this means in practice is developing a revealing picture of the heart comprising two distinct dimensions of its performance. First, tools that are capable of mapping the heart's physical structure are deployed by experts at Abbott Electrophysiology, with a three-dimensional model being created as a result. Next, sensors that are capable of measuring electrical impulses record a corresponding map of the heart's signaling processes.
With this richly informative picture of the heart's functioning to hand, Abbot Electrophysiology specialists can then create a treatment plan that is properly customized to each patient's needs and situation. Instead of crude tools that nudge the heart into a healthier rhythm in only the bluntest of ways, they can use much more precise means of dealing with fibrillation. That often leaves patients in much healthier, more robust shape than in the past, opening up new possibilities for them.