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By Christine Welniak February 22, 2011 — New research on the CHA2DS2-VASc stroke risk tool provides insight into stroke risk factors related to atrial fibrillation and could help assess which patients should be placed on anticoagulant medication. These findings are particularly important for afib patients who are deemed to have intermediate stroke risk based on …

By Mellanie True Hills In this video, Dr. Kenneth Ellenbogen, of Virginia Commonwealth University, talked about some of the exciting things for afib patients being presented at the 2010 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. First, he talked about the presentation of the ROCKET AF clinical trial, which could provide a second new alternative to warfarin …

By Christine Welniak February 9, 2011 — A new strategy, hybrid ablation, for treating persistent and longstanding persistent atrial fibrillation was discussed at the recent Boston AF Symposium. Hybrid ablation is a dual approach in which an electrophysiologist ablates from inside the heart and a cardiac surgeon ablates on the outside of the heart. This …

By Mellanie True Hills February 7, 2011 — StopAfib.org announces a new atrial fibrillation patient profile. Our newest profile is of Michele Straube, an attorney turned mediator and outdoors enthusiast, who found an innovative diagnostic team that treated her atrial fibrillation with catheter ablation. Now that her afib is gone, she is undertaking a multi-year …

By Mellanie True Hills Summary: In this video interview, Dr. Daniel Singer discusses devices and anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation stroke prevention, including the rivaroxaban and dabigatran clinical trial results. Reading and watching time: Approximately 11–12 minutes In this video interview, Dr. Daniel Singer, of the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, discussed …

By Christine Welniak February 3, 2011 — A major focus of the recent Boston AF Symposium was the durability of catheter ablation. Studies discussed there by Dr. David Wilber, of Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, showed that up to 30% of patients could have very late recurrence of atrial fibrillation following catheter ablation. Very …

By Christine Welniak January 27, 2011 — At the recent Boston AF Symposium, conference organizer, Dr. Jeremy Ruskin, presented data from the STOP AF clinical trial showing that learning curve impacted cryoablation success in treating paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Doctors who had more experience with the Arctic Front Cardiac Cryoablation Catheter system had better outcomes than those …

In this video interview at Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium, Dr. Pierre Jais, of the University of Bordeaux (Bordeaux, France), clarifies his group's recently-published long-term catheter ablation results. These results were called "sobering" in the media ("Sobering" long-term outcomes following ablation of atrial fibrillation), but Dr. Jais sees them as encouraging. The results, reported in the …

UPDATE: The live sessions at the Virtual Health Fair have been saved and you can watch them, and visit the booths, through April 19, 2011, at www.stroke.org/virtualhealthfair Dallas, TX, January 18, 2011 — StopAfib.org is participating in the National Stroke Association's first annual Virtual Health Fair on Wednesday, January 19, 2011. Registration is free, but …