Equipment for the electrophysiology laboratory: possibilities and limitations

In this chapter, an overview will be presented of the equipment required for invasive electrophysiological investigations in patients suffering from cardiac arrhythmias or conduction disturbances. In this context, the term electrophy-siologic investigation represents those methods and techniques used to make the differential diagnosis, to determine the etiology, and to evaluate the selected therapy in patients suffering from conduction disturbances and/or tachyarrhythmias. After a brief overview of these investigational techniques, a description of the hardware will be given, followed by a discussion of the influence the application of additional computer techniques could have.