[How to ablate: atrial tachycardia].

The ectopic atrial tachycardia is diagnosed in approx. 10 to 15% of supraventricular tachycardias. Since medical therapy is often shown to be ineffective, ablative procedures became especially important in this disease. Localization of the arrhythmia foci seems to be concentrated at anatomical preformations like the crista terminalis, right or left atrial appendage orifice or at the superior pulmonary veins. The P-wave vector in the surface ECG is predictive for focus localization: a positive or biphasic P-wave in a VL for right atrial foci, a positive P-wave in V1 for left atrial foci. Catheter ablation therapy is also shown to be very effective in this kind of supraventricular tachycardia.