DeRosa to undergo heart procedure

Feb 28, 2008 - 12:18 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Chicago Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa will undergo a procedure on Thursday in Chicago which doctors hope can correct what is causing his irregular heartbeat, according to a report on MLB.com.

Cubs team physician Dr. Stephen Adams, speaking on DeRosa's behalf, said the 33-year-old was examined Tuesday by Dr. Alan Kadish, a cardiovascular electrophysiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, the report states.

DeRosa will undergo an electrophysiology study (EPS) in which Kadish will put a catheter in a vein, probably the femural vein, Adams told the website. The EPS is done in an attempt to induce an atrial arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat.

Depending on what the doctors find, Adams told MLB.com, DeRosa may undergo a radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA), which is an attempt to cure the past problems of jumping into atrial arrhythmia.

The procedure usually takes about one hour.

Adams tried to use baseball to explain what DeRosa's heart was doing. The normal route for a baserunner is home to first base, then second, third and home. If a baserunner was having an arrhythmia, the path would would take someone from first, then across the pitcher's mound to third, then home.

"Essentially, what they're doing (with the EPS) is looking to see if there's a pathway where you run across or is there a way of taking a shortcut, and if there is a shortcut, then you build a fence," Adams told the website. "That's what the catheter ablation does."

If all goes well, and depending on what the doctors find, DeRosa could return to Arizona on Sunday and could resume taking batting practice by the beginning of next week. Adams told MLB.com that if DeRosa passes all the tests, he could be going "full throttle" by the end of next week.

"The feeling is that if they can induce it, then they cauterize it or do the RFA," Adams said to the website. "After, they try to re-induce it to see if it happens again."

DeRosa was first diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat when he was a teen, and he told the Cubs medical staff that it has been occurring with increasing frequency.

"The only serious concern is DeRosa," Cubs manager Lou Piniella told the website on Wednesday. "We're thinking about Mark and everything's going to go fine, and he'll be back here this weekend."

DeRosa was taken to a Mesa hospital on Saturday after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during drills. His heart condition is not expected to keep him from playing this year.