You all know how I feel about the value of education in the treatment and prevention of heart disease: It is self-evident and unquestionable. Along the lines of educating patients and docs, and in the spirit of February being Heart Health Awareness month, I believe The Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) deserves strong mention for their […]
Category: Atrial fibrillation
I am very excited. Nervous too. The ante has been upped. 240,000 members – 60,000 cardiologists – 38,000 other physicians – 66,000 Health care professionals. That’s the TheHeart.org: a website where one can find the latest developments in cardiology and cardiovascular research, including heartwire news and commentary by some of the world’s top cardiologists. It’s […]
I know the title sounds crazy, but this isn’t just a headline grabber. It is real. Here’s the story: Tambocor is the brand name version of the helpful AF drug, flecainide. “Flec,†as we call it, helps control AF episodes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) AND a structurally normal heart. Its patent long expired; […]
Let’s get off cell biology and back to something I really know. Atrial fibrillation, AF ablation and blood thinners. There was an important study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology concerning the use of the new blood thinner, dabigatran (Pradaxa), around the time of AF ablation. A very concise overview, […]
How do doctors decide on treatments? How do you decide? And yes, you should decide! What inputs go into making this important decision? Let me make it simple. Basically, there are only four. (As they say in the Hamburg EP lab…â€It’s easy.â€) First, since I am an older doctor, I’ll start with… Risks: In deciding […]
Whew. The Boston AF symposium digests slowly. Processing nearly the entirety of AF into just three days borders on ridiculous. Well at least for us regular guys, you know, those of us that doctor, not model things mathematically. This year, I tried something new: posting slightly refined quick notes on each lecture, mostly in real-time. […]
Today is the third and final day of the Boston AF symposium. (My editorial comments in italics.) Dr Hugh Caulkins started the day by reviewing the major clinical trials of AF ablation. A lot of these I have written about previously. One of the most pivotal trials to mention is CABANA. Here, investigators are enrolling […]
The late-morning sessions addressed the possible mechanism(s) of AF. Many ask what causes AF. The assumption holds that if we can ablate AF, we must know what causes it. This would not be true. One line of thinking holds that disorganized electrical conduction throughout the atria plays an important role–not just focal drivers and initiators […]
Dr. Frank Marchlinski moderated the first sessions: The global topic involved pulmonary vein reconnections. This is the bane of AF ablation. Our inability to broach the 80% success rates has most to do with the fact that PVs don’t stay isolated. Everyone wants to enhance the durability of PV isolation. Nassir Marrouche spoke about what […]
The second half of the day was fast paced and full of information. Folks, these are rough notes. Hope they help…Again my random thoughts are in italics. Dr Eric Prystowsky led off the with the best clinical papers of 2011: He is a great speaker and hit upon a bunch of important topics. The good […]
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Live Blog–Boston AF symposium
I’ve never tried this before: giving some brief snips of an AF symposium, on the fly. Maybe doing so will help me remember. My comments are in italics. Little proofreads–consider these quick notes. First talk: Dr Jalife. Molecular mechanisms AF: Think fibrosis, or the infiltration of scar tissue within the muscle of the heart. This […]