Site Testing
Cryotherapy is able to produce a temporary electrical block by cooling down the tissue believed to be conducting the arrhythmia. This allows the physician to make sure this is the right site before permanently disabling it. The ability to test a site in this way is referred to as site testing or cryomapping.
When ablating tissue near the AV node (a special conduction center that carries electrical impulses from the atria to the ventricles), there is a risk of producing heart block - that is, normal conduction from the atria cannot be transmitted to the ventricles. Freezing tissue near the AV node is less likely to provoke irreversible heart block than ablating it with heat.
Read more about this topic: Cryoablation
Famous quotes containing the words site and/or testing:
“That is a pathetic inquiry among travelers and geographers after the site of ancient Troy. It is not near where they think it is. When a thing is decayed and gone, how indistinct must be the place it occupied!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—David Webb Peoples, U.S. screenwriter, and Ridley Scott. Rachel, Blade Runner, being tested to determine if she is human or machine (1982)