Michel Haïssaguerre (October 1955) is a French cardiologist and electrophysiologist. His investigations have been the basis for development of new markers and therapies for atrial and ventricular fibrillation.[1]

Michel Haïssaguerre
Born (1955-10-05) 5 October 1955 (age 69)
NationalityFrench
CitizenshipFrance
Known forContributions in the area of cardiac fibrillation
Scientific career
FieldsCardiac electrophysiology
InstitutionsHôpital Cardiologique du Haut–Lévèque / IHU Liryc

Biography

edit

Haïssaguerre was born in Bayonne, France. He became a Professor of Cardiology in 1994. His present position is Chief of the Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology department at the Haut–Lévèque Cardiology Hospital, part of the Bordeaux University Hospital Community. He was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences in 2010.

In 2011, he founded LIRYC, a research Institute focusing on Cardiac Electrophysiology and Modeling, which brings together 150 members from multiple disciplines. Its goal is to improve understanding of the electrical activity of the heart, to reduce suffering and mortality due to heart rhythm disorders.

His investigations have been the basis for development of new markers and therapies for atrial and ventricular fibrillation.[1]

Areas of research

edit

Michel Haïssaguerre's research focuses on abnormalities of heart rhythm with particular interest in mapping and treatment for cardiac fibrillation.

In the early eighties, he investigated patients with cardiac arrhythmias caused by single pathological conditions, such as accessory pathway-related tachycardia (Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome or Mahaim fibers), and junctional tachycardia. He showed that it was feasible to pinpoint the pathologies anywhere in the heart by direct recording electrical activity using intracardiac catheters. By delivering energy through the catheters and destroying tissue, the pathology could be eliminated, thereby curing the patient.[2][3][4]

Later, Michel Haïssaguerre's team investigated cardiac fibrillation, the most complex and severe type of arrhythmias, defined as "turbulent, disorganized electrical activity.[5][6] Cardiac fibrillation involves different mechanisms acting separately or together, the main phenomenon being circus movement, or reentry (Georges Ralph Mines, 1913). A combination of spatiotemporal factors is required to establish reentry, a process occurring at a macroscopic scale rather than at the cellular level, with antiarrhythmic drugs (ion channel blockers) having limited efficacy or even proarrythmic effects in clinic (CAST trial). Apart from antiarrhythmic drugs, a surgical approach to block electrical reentries had been proposed, by James Cox et al (1987) to treat atrial fibrillation, using a series of full-thickness incisions (Cox maze procedur)).

Michel Haïssaguerre developed multi-electrode catheters to perform wide area mapping and identify the primary activity at the origin of the fibrillation. Long mapping studies were needed due to the random nature of initiation. These studies demonstrated that specific sources were the genesis of 'chaotic' arrhythmias, creating a paradigm shift with regard to therapeutic strategies.

Atrial fibrillation

edit

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting 2 to 3% of the population of Europe and North America. It is the cause of 20–25% of ischemic brain strokes.[7][8] Michel Haïssaguerre was the first to identify that in most cases, atrial fibrillation is triggered by abnormal electrical impulses originating from the pulmonary veins, structures hitherto considered to be devoid of electrical activity. He pioneered the use of catheter ablation to treat atrial fibrillation using the technique of pulmonary vein isolation to prevent this abnormal electrical activity from reaching the atria. This technique underlies methods now used for treatment worldwide.[9]

Ventricular fibrillation

edit

Ventricular fibrillation is a major cause of cardiac arrest, or sudden cardiac death, which accounts for about 10% of mortality in adults, causing 350 000 deaths in the US each year.[10] Michel Haïssaguerre's team showed that patients with sudden cardiac death and structurally normal hearts frequently had triggers originating from Purkinje fibers, a physiological tissue representing 2% of myocardial mass. The same tissue was confirmed to also play a pathogenic role in ventricular fibrillation associated with myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathies and other conditions. The team pioneered the use of catheter ablation to treat ventricular fibrillation in 2002.[11]

Despite the effective treatments (implantable defibrillators, ablation) available for lethal ventricular arrhythmias, the major hurdle remains identification of subjects at risk of sudden death.[12] Michel Haïssaguerre's team showed the role of subtle phenotypic markers present on the ECG, and demonstrated in collaboration with groups from Bangkok and Tsukuba, that different mechanisms could also lead to a similar phenotype.[13] Further studies have focused on the enigmatic origin of 'sudden unexplained cardiac deaths': those for which no cause is found after a complete autopsy or detailed investigations (surviving patients). This pathology particularly affects young people at rest or during sleep.[14] After identification of reentrant sources, they showed the presence of localized myocardial alteration at the sources, which may be the final damage caused by a number of diseases.[15] This marker may open up new avenues for the early identification of subjects at risk, by electrical or imaging methods, combined with genetic analysis.

Awards

edit

Professor Michel Haïssaguerre has received a number of honors and awards:

  • 1982 – Robert-Debré Award
  • 1990 – Cardiology Information Award
  • 1992 – Ela Medical Award
  • 2002 – Nylin Medal (Swedish Society of Cardiology)
  • 2003 – Best Scientist Award Grüntzig (European Society of Cardiology)
  • 2004 – Pioneer in Cardiac Electrophysiology (North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology , currently the Heart Rhythm Society)
  • 2009 – Mirowski Award for Excellence in Clinical Cardiology and Electrophysiology
  • 2010 – Scientific Grand Prize of the Lefoulon-Delalande Foundation[16] (Academy of Sciences)
  • 2010 – Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (Geneva)[17]
  • 2014 – KU Pioneer in Cardiovascular Electrophysiology
  • 2015 – Gold medal European Society of Cardiology
  • 2019 – Luigi Luciani Electrophysiology Award

Scientific Papers

edit

Michel Haïssaguerre and his team have published more than 800 publications in peer-reviewed cardiology journals dealing mainly with mapping and therapy of cardiac electrical disorders.

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Lüderitz, Berndt (2005). Profiles in cardiac pacing and electrophysiology. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub. ISBN 978-0-470-99491-7. OCLC 184983481.
  2. ^ Warin, J F; Haissaguerre, M; Lemetayer, P; Guillem, J P; Blanchot, P (October 1988). "Catheter ablation of accessory pathways with a direct approach. Results in 35 patients". Circulation. 78 (4): 800–815. doi:10.1161/01.cir.78.4.800. ISSN 0009-7322. PMID 3168189.
  3. ^ Haissaguerre, M; Warin, J F; Le Metayer, P; Maraud, L; De Roy, L; Montserrat, P; Massiere, J P (August 1990). "Catheter ablation of Mahaim fibers with preservation of atrioventricular nodal conduction". Circulation. 82 (2): 418–427. doi:10.1161/01.CIR.82.2.418. ISSN 0009-7322. PMID 2115408.
  4. ^ Haissaguerre, Michel; Warin, Jean Francois; Lemetayer, Philippe; Saoudi, Nadir; Guillem, Jean Pierre; Blanchot, Pierre (16 February 1989). "Closed-Chest Ablation of Retrograde Conduction in Patients with Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia". New England Journal of Medicine. 320 (7): 426–433. doi:10.1056/nejm198902163200704. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 2913508.
  5. ^ Panfilov, A.; Pertsov, A. (15 June 2001). "Ventricular fibrillation: evolution of the multiple–wavelet hypothesis". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 359 (1783): 1315–1325. Bibcode:2001RSPTA.359.1315P. doi:10.1098/rsta.2001.0833. ISSN 1364-503X. S2CID 14635748.
  6. ^ Gray, Richard A.; Pertsov, Arkady M.; Jalife, José (5 March 1998). "Spatial and temporal organization during cardiac fibrillation". Nature. 392 (6671): 75–78. Bibcode:1998Natur.392...75G. doi:10.1038/32164. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 9510249. S2CID 4386639.
  7. ^ Nattel, Stanley (January 2002). "New ideas about atrial fibrillation 50 years on". Nature. 415 (6868): 219–226. Bibcode:2002Natur.415..219N. doi:10.1038/415219a. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11805846. S2CID 16959236.
  8. ^ Fuster, Valentin; Rydén, Lars E.; Cannom, David S.; Crijns, Harry J.; Curtis, Anne B.; Ellenbogen, Kenneth A.; Halperin, Jonathan L.; Le Heuzey, Jean-Yves; Kay, G. Neal; Lowe, James E.; Olsson, S. Bertil (15 August 2006). "ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and the European Society of Cardiology Committee for Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 2001 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation): Developed in Collaboration With the European Heart Rhythm Association and the Heart Rhythm Society". Circulation. 114 (7): e257-354. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.177292. ISSN 0009-7322. PMID 16908781.
  9. ^ Haïssaguerre, Michel; Jaïs, Pierre; Shah, Dipen C.; Takahashi, Atsushi; Hocini, Mélèze; Quiniou, Gilles; Garrigue, Stéphane; Le Mouroux, Alain; Le Métayer, Philippe; Clémenty, Jacques (3 September 1998). "Spontaneous Initiation of Atrial Fibrillation by Ectopic Beats Originating in the Pulmonary Veins". New England Journal of Medicine. 339 (10): 659–666. doi:10.1056/NEJM199809033391003. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 9725923.
  10. ^ Al-Khatib, Sana M.; Stevenson, William G.; Ackerman, Michael J.; Bryant, William J.; Callans, David J.; Curtis, Anne B.; Deal, Barbara J.; Dickfeld, Timm; Field, Michael E.; Fonarow, Gregg C.; Gillis, Anne M. (25 September 2018). "2017 AHA/ACC/HRS Guideline for Management of Patients With Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Heart Rhythm Society". Circulation. 138 (13): e272–e391. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000000549. ISSN 0009-7322. PMID 29084731.
  11. ^ Haissaguerre, Michel; Vigmond, Edward; Stuyvers, Bruno; Hocini, Meleze; Bernus, Olivier (March 2016). "Ventricular arrhythmias and the His–Purkinje system". Nature Reviews Cardiology. 13 (3): 155–166. doi:10.1038/nrcardio.2015.193. ISSN 1759-5002. PMID 26727298.
  12. ^ Fishman Glenn I.; Chugh Sumeet S.; DiMarco John P.; Albert Christine M.; Anderson Mark E.; Bonow Robert O.; Buxton Alfred E.; Chen Peng-Sheng; Estes Mark; Jouven Xavier; Kwong Raymond (30 November 2010). "Sudden Cardiac Death Prediction and Prevention". Circulation. 122 (22): 2335–2348. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.110.976092. PMC 3016224. PMID 21147730.
  13. ^ Nademanee Koonlawee; Haissaguerre Michel; Hocini Mélèze; Nogami Akihiko; Cheniti Ghassen; Duchateau Josselin; Behr Elijah R.; Saba Magdi; Bokan Ryan; Lou Qing; Amnueypol Montawatt (29 October 2019). "Mapping and Ablation of Ventricular Fibrillation Associated With Early Repolarization Syndrome". Circulation. 140 (18): 1477–1490. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.039022. PMID 31542949.
  14. ^ Bagnall, Richard D.; Weintraub, Robert G.; Ingles, Jodie; Duflou, Johan; Yeates, Laura; Lam, Lien; Davis, Andrew M.; Thompson, Tina; Connell, Vanessa; Wallace, Jennie; Naylor, Charles (23 June 2016). "A Prospective Study of Sudden Cardiac Death among Children and Young Adults". New England Journal of Medicine. 374 (25): 2441–2452. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1510687. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 27332903.
  15. ^ Haïssaguerre, Michel; Hocini, Mélèze; Cheniti, Ghassen; Duchateau, Josselin; Sacher, Frédéric; Puyo, Stéphane; Cochet, Hubert; Takigawa, Masateru; Denis, Arnaud; Martin, Ruairidh; Derval, Nicolas (July 2018). "Localized Structural Alterations Underlying a Subset of Unexplained Sudden Cardiac Death". Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. 11 (7): e006120. doi:10.1161/circep.117.006120. ISSN 1941-3149. PMC 7661047. PMID 30002064.
  16. ^ "Michel Haïssaguerre". Institut de France. Grands Prix des Fondations. 24 April 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  17. ^ "Professeur Michel HAÏSSAGUERRE | Jeantet". 1 October 2017.