Michel Haïssaguerre was born 1955 in Bayonne (France). He holds a Masters in human biology and earned his doctorate in medicine (1982) and his certificate in cardiology (1984). In that year he was named Senior Registrar at the Bordeaux University Hospital and medical assistant at the Bordeaux Hospitals. He is currently professor of cardiology at the University Victor-Segalen Bordeaux 2 and head of the Department of Cardiac Arrhythmias at the University Hospital of Bordeaux (Haut-Lévêque Cardiology Hospital). Michel Haïssaguerre has authored a very large number of publications and is a member of various scientific societies. He has received numerous distinctions, and notably the Best Scientist Grüntzig Award from the European Society of Cardiology, in 2003, the Pioneer Award from the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology, in 2004, and the Mirowski Award for his excellent work in clinical cardiology and electrophysiology, in 2009.

Origin and treatment of atrial and ventricular fibrillation

Atrial and ventricular fibrillation are the most complex pathologies relating to cardiac rhythm. The former is the main cause of embolic cerebral vascular accidents. As for the latter, it is behind most cases of sudden death in adults, affecting 350’000 people every year in Europe.
First of all, Michel Haïssaguerre studied the genesis of atrial fibrillation. In creating a «heart map» he was the first to notice that the electrical problems causing the illness were not occurring in the atrium, as had been thought for a long time, but further upstream in the cells situated in external wall of the pulmonary veins. This discovery was confirmed by numerous clinics across the world, and led to the development of a new treatment involving the ablation by cryotherapy or ultrasound of the cells causing atrial fibrillation. In 2009, 150'000 persons received this treatment, and the number of cases thus managed is growing constantly.
Michel Haïssaguerre and his team adopted this same original approach to look into the causes of ventricular fibrillation. Although in this case the heart mapping technique was more difficult due to the instantaneous nature of the disorder, which calls for immediate defibrillation using electric shocks, they achieved their goal. They demonstrated that these «electrical tornados» emanate from the tissue known as «de Purkinje», which only accounts for the tiniest fraction (2%) of the cardiac mass. The concept has since been validated in clinical trials on a few patients. Thermoablation focused on this tissue totally eliminated these patients' arrythmias.

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