Best Arrhythmia cardiologists in Italy: TOP 7 doctors

Prof. Carlo Pappone is the Head of the Operative Unit of Clinical Arithmology and the Electrophysiology Laboratory at IRCCS Policlinico San Donato in Milan and an experienced Fellow in numerous international cardiology societies. He has a specialization in Cardiology from 1990 and a PhD in Cardiovascular Diseases from 1995, and has been involved in all electrophysiology procedures. He has also developed a new epicardial ablation procedure to identify and eliminate the mechanisms that trigger sudden death in Brugada syndrome patients. He has been an invited speaker and moderator at major national and international congresses in the field of cardiology and arrhythmology, and has a total of 184 scientific articles, 30 book chapters and 184 papers with 16,814 citations and an H-Index of 50. He is also a reviewer of numerous journals and has won an Elite Reviewer Award from the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) in 2006.

Dott. Antonio Frontera is the Electrophysiology Unit Director in Humanitas Research Hospital.  

Medical areas of interest: 

After graduating in Medicine and Surgery at the University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome in 2006, he specialized in Cardiology at the same university in 2012.

Soon after his specialization he moved to England where he was hired as a Clinical and Research Fellow in cardiac electrophysiology at the Bristol Heart Institute (NHS), Bristol. 
He won a scholarship from the European Society of Aritmology (EHRA) and completed his training in cardiac electrophysiology at the prestigious Haut Léveque Hospital in Bordeaux, France, directed by Prof. Michel Haïssaguerre. In the same French university, he obtained his PhD.

During these 5 years of training abroad, he performed about 800 trans catheter ablation surgeries focusing mainly on the treatment of supraventricular arrhythmias. As a researcher, he has published nearly 100 scientific papers on innovation and trans catheter ablation techniques, defibrillator and pacemaker functioning algorithms.

Back to Italy, he was employed at the Aritmology Unit of the San Raffale Hospital specializing in the treatment of ventricular tachycardia, performing more than 150 procedures as a first and second operator.

To date, Dr. Frontera is the author of more than 145 scientific papers published in international journals. He constantly participates in national and international congresses of the sector.

Research areas of interest:
He has particular interest in the analysis of endocavitary signals (EGMs) in ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation.

Thanks to a close collaboration with the Mathematics department of Politecnico di Milano, directed by Prof. Quarteroni, he studied innovative techniques for the treatment of complex arrhythmias.

Previous experience:
 

• Clinical and Research Fellow in Cardiac Electrophysiology - Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol, UK
• Clinical and Research Fellow in Cardiac Electrophysiology - Hôpital Haut Léveque, Bordeaux, FR

Publications: 

Sinus node exit, crista terminalis conduction, interatrial connection and wavefront collision: key features of human atrial activation in sinus rhythm.
Pambrun T, Derval N, Duchateau J, Ramirez FD, Chauvel R, Tixier R, Marchand H, Bouyer B, Welte N, André C, Nakashima T, Nakatani Y, Kamakura T, Takagi T, Krisai P, Ascione C, Balbo C, Cheniti G, Vlachos K, Bourier F, Takigawa M, Kitamura T, Frontera A, Meo M, Denis A, Sacher F, Hocini M, Jaïs P, Haïssaguerre M.Heart Rhythm. 2022 Jan 13

Electrogram fractionation during sinus rhythm occurs in normal voltage atrial tissue in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Frontera A, Limite LR, Pagani S, Cireddu M, Vlachos K, Martin C, Takigawa M, Kitamura T, Bourier F, Cheniti G, Pambrun T, Sacher F, Derval N, Hocini M, Quarteroni A, Della Bella P, Haissaguerre M, Jaïs P.Pacing Clin Electrophysiol. 2021

Slow Conduction Corridors and Pivot Sites Characterize the Electrical Remodeling in Atrial Fibrillation - ScienceDirect
Antonio Frontera MD, Ph.D1, Stefano Pagani Ph.D2, Luca Rosario Limite MD1, Andrea Peirone MD1, Francesco Fioravanti MD1, Bogdan Enache MD6, Jose Cuellar, MD4, Konstantinos Vlachos, MD5, Christian Meyer, MD, MA7, Giovanni Montesano, MD8, Andrea Manzoni, Ph.D2, Luca Dedè2 Ph.D2, Alfio Quarteroni, Ph.D2,3, Decebal Gabriel Lațcu, MD6, Pietro Rossi MD, Ph.D9, Paolo Della Bella MD1.
JACC EP Jan 2022

Right ventricular outflow tract electroanatomical abnormalities in asymptomatic and high-risk symptomatic patients with Brugada syndrome: Evidence for a new risk stratification tool?
Letsas KP, Vlachos K, Conte G, Efremidis M, Nakashima T, Duchateau J, Bazoukis G, Frontera A, Mililis P, Tse G, Cheniti G, Takigawa M, Pambrun T, Prappa E, Sacher F, Derval N, Sideris A, Auricchio A, Jais P, Haissaguerre M, Hocini M.J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol. 2021

Effect of electrode size and spacing on electrograms: Optimized electrode configuration for near-field electrogram characterization.
Takigawa M, Kitamura T, Basu S, Bartal M, Martin CA, Martin R, Cheniti G, Vlachos K, Pillois X, Frontera A, Massoullié G, Thompson N, Bourier F, Lam A, Duchateau J, Pambrun T, Denis A, Derval N, Cochet H, Haïssaguerre M, Sacher F, Hocini M, Jaïs P.Heart Rhythm. 2022 Jan;

In 1995 he graduated at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery form the Catanzaro University “Magna Graecia”, where, in 2001, he specialized in Internal Medicine. In 2006 he attended the “State of the Art in AFIB and HF Treatments” course directed by Dr. Carlo Pappone. In 2014 he attended the Heart Rhythm Management Center Universitair Ziekenhuis in Brussel and obtained the certification for the procedures for the treatment of atrial fibrillation using cryoenergy (Cryoballon Training Program). In 2015, he was certified for MICRA-TPS leadless pacemaker implantation procedures at Medtronic Training Center in Minneapolis (MICRA-TPS Training Program).

Dr Iacopino is a member of important national and international scientific societies such as the American College of Cardiology, the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society, the European Heart Rhythm Association and the European Society of Cardiology. He directs several study projects, applicable to great benefit for the patient on the identification of rare syndromes associated with arrhythmias and heart failure, such as Brugada syndrome, or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. He recently tested, for the first time in Italy, the CardioInsight, an innovative hi-tech jacket for 3D mapping of the heart rhythm disturbances. He has participated and hosted numerous medical conferences around the world, providing theoretical and practical preparation for the various interventional procedures aimed at electrophysiologists and electrophysiology technicians from all over Italy and abroad (United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Russia). He was a member of the AIAC National Electrophysiology and Ablation Registry, the AIAC Lead Extraction National Registry and the AIAC Pacemaker and Implantable Defibrillator National Registry.

He is author or co-author of several publications and interventions in prestigious medical journals (total impact factor: 169.098).

He has been awarded different fellowships: 

- Fellowship ANMCO (National Association of Hospital Cardiologists), Florence, 3 June 2007; 

- Fellowship ESC (European Society of Cardiology), Munich, 1 September 2008; 

- Fellowship ACC (American College of Cardiology), Atlanta, February 1, 2010