Physicians may be able to double their success in treating patients with cardiac rhythm disorders by targeting treatment on electrical "hot spots" in the heart, according to results from the Confirm trial.

"The results of this trial, with an 80% ablation success rate after a single procedure, are very gratifying," UCLA professor and director Kalyanam Shivkumar said in prepared remarks. "This is the dawn of a new phase of managing this common arrhythmia that is mechanism-based."

Researchers discovered a way to detect the hot spots, in the form of electrical spinning tops or focal beats, and target them precisely to deliver ablation therapy in just minutes that can offer long-last results.

Using the new method researchers "shut down atrial fibrillation or very significantly slowed it in 86% of patients in an average of only 2.5 minutes," according to a press release.

That compared with conventional treatment which delivers ablation to a larger region of the heart, which takes longer and "often did not shut down atrial fibrillation."

After 2 years patients treated with the new targeting methods exhibited 82.4% freedom from AF episodes, compared with 44.9% freedom among patients who received the conventional therapy.

Topera Medica originally unveiled the highly anticipated results of its Confirm study at the Heart Rhythm Society’s annual meeting in Boston in May, touting a 100% success rate for its RhythmView 3D mapping system.

The discoveries were licensed to California startup company Topera Medical, which recently landed FDA clearance for its RhythmView mapping system.

The study’s lead author and UC San Diego professor Dr. Sanjiv Narayan is a co-founder with equity interest in Topera. Fellow author and UC San Diego professor Wouter-Jan Rappel also holds equity interest in Topera, according to the press release.