This week will be AF week. I am flying to Boston for the renowned Boston AF symposium, Thursday-Sunday. On Wednesday, I’ll be visiting a Harvard hospital to watch a case of cryo-balloon ablation for AF. It will be the second time that I have seen the cryo-balloon, the first was in May 2011 in Hamburg. […]
It has been awhile since I wrote about catheter ablation of Atrial fibrillation (AF). It’s time. Things have changed—for the better. But you wouldn’t have guessed this if all you read were recent headlines. Medpage Today says AF ablation is dogged by complications. TheHeart.org calls complications after AF ablation not uncommon. These stories summarize the […]
You may have heard that AF is a tough disease to understand. Questions far outnumber answers. What causes AF? Why do some not feel it at all, while others are incapacitated? What’s the best treatment? Drugs? Ablation? Surgery? No treatment? Should I take a blood thinner…and which one? Where should one go for the best […]
AF News Flash: Heart surgeons are on the case! An important trial comparing catheter ablation to surgical ablation for AF was reported at last month’s AHA meeting. The surgical ablation arm of the FAST trial used the newly-approved Atricure Synergy Ablation System. And onward goes the collegial tussle between heart doctors and heart surgeons. Before […]
I learned a lot from putting together an abstract for a national heart meeting. More than just learning how to e-submit, e-upload and e-print a large poster; More than what t-tests and chi-squares measure; More than learning that females respond differently to AF ablation; And surely more than which coffee shop offers the best work […]
Here is our AHA poster. In powerpoint version: Gender-specific results of AF Ablation in a Private Practice Setting And in PDF: Gender-specific results of AF ablation in a Private Practice Setting-PDF The actual poster: (Click to enlarge.) I would like to thank my co-authors. Without their volunteerism and can-do ethos, we would simply not know […]
Hey all. I put together an AF-treatment power-point presentation for a group of primary care doctors, ER doctors and others this morning. The title of the talk is 2011 Update in the treatment of AF. The focus of the presentation will be five aspects of AF treatment: The best tool to treat AF A better […]
I want to apologize in advance. I did something this week that induced my goofy neurons to run amok. I took a day off and went to the movies with my wife and son. (Yes, the iPhone stayed in the car.) We saw MoneyBall. It’s a beautiful Sports Life story. You should go see it […]
There is more bad news for the newest atrial fibrillation ablation tool–Medtronic’s Ablation Frontiers catheter-ablation system. After an overly positive press release last month, I wrote about the system’s safety issues. Namely, that although effective, the multi-electrode PVAC circular ablation catheter was associated with an increased risk of stroke. Previous studies on the catheter showed […]
When it comes to the risk of stroke in atrial fibrillation, it pays to be a boy. Sorry, ladies. An important question came up on my recent post on AF and stroke. Why does being female give you an automatic point on CHADS2-VASc? I keep seeing it, but I don’t see why that is. It […]
Here is the pdf version: 2011 AF and Stroke Talk (Norton) And the power point version: 2011 AF and Stroke Talk (Norton) Overview: —We will start with the accepted evidence base for warfarin. —Then move to dispel four myths about using blood-thinners in AF: Myth 1: Rhythm-control strategies prevent stroke. Myth 2: Running the INR […]