At Heart Rhythm 2012, Dr. Sanjiv Narayan gave us an update on his FIRM (focal impulse and rotor modulation) ablation research, including that other centers have been duplicating his work in ablating rotors and focal beats. Amazingly, some patients have had their atrial fibrillation wiped out in a matter of minutes. Watch the video or …
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Mellanie True Hills, founder of StopAfib.org, spoke at the Fifth Annual Western Atrial Fibrillation Symposium medical conference. Her remarks are summarized in her patient perspective column in the April 2012 issue of EP Lab Digest. See: How Social Media Helps Educate Afib Patients: An Atrial Fibrillation Patient Perspective Published in EP Lab Digest, April, 2012
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At the American College of Cardiology meeting last week, I discovered a neat project being tackled by Alere, the sponsor of PTINR.com, which is a web site we highly recommend for those taking Coumadin or warfarin. If you take warfarin or Coumadin, you know that you have to keep your vitamin K intake consistent, but …
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Recently, StopAfib.org partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to give you an opportunity to chat live with three of their atrial fibrillation experts, Dr. Walid Saliba, Dr Mandeep Bhargava, and Dr. David Van Wagoner, who were joined by StopAfib.org founder Mellanie True Hills. The transcript of our afib community chat with these atrial fibrillation experts from …
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Although the total number of stroke deaths declined by more than 50 percent between 1978 and 2006, racial disparities in stroke deaths have remained and efforts to eliminate health disparities have been unsuccessful. Between ages 45 and 65, blacks are 2 to 3 times more likely to die from stroke than whites, but we haven’t …
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Atrial fibrillation is the most common irregular heart rhythm that starts in the atria. While it is often a mere annoyance, it can also be responsible for life-threatening medical emergencies that result in cardiac arrest, stroke and sudden death. Take advantage of the opportunity to get your atrial fibrillation questions answered by afib experts from …
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The wildly beating heart, fatigue and other debilitating symptoms are well known to the many millions of people impacted by atrial fibrillation. Some of those who have afib may have no outward symptoms, but are still at risk of serious and long-term damage to the heart. Symptoms or not, rate control is the common treatment …
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In this interview, Dr. Daniel Singer updates us on the new anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation stroke prevention that he presented about at Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium. He provided an update on rivaroxaban (Xarelto), apixaban (Eliquis), dabigatran (Pradaxa), and edoxaban, and mentioned that all were better than warfarin (Coumadin) in preventing intracranial bleeding (bleeding in the …
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At Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 2012, Dr. Hugh Calkins, electrophysiologist at Johns Hopkins, presented the new 2012 HRS/EHRA/ECAS Expert Consensus Statement on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation, which will replace the original guidelines that were published in 2007. Instead of simply rewriting sections that have changed, the writing committee, which was made up …
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Dr. John Mandrola, a cardiac electrophysiologist in Louisville, Kentucky, who blogs at Dr. John M, live-blogged the 2012 Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium. He has given us permission to reprint his blog posts for the afib community. You will find them here: Recap of Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 2012 – Guest Posts by Dr. John Mandrola …
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