How to map and ablate papillary muscle ventricular arrhythmias

The papillary muscles (PMs) are a source of ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) in both structurally normal and abnormal hearts. Presentation includes isolated premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (VT), and sustained recurrent VT. In addition, PVCs arising from the PMs may play a role as triggers of ventricular fibrillation (VF).1,2 Because of their highly variable and complex anatomy and independent motion during the cardiac cycle, catheter ablation is challenging, with lower procedural success and higher recurrence rates compared with other locations.