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Atrial fibrillation Cycling Stuff Doctoring ICD/Pacemaker

Day 4 ESC 2013 — Female gender and AF, patient selection for CRT and a Dutch cycling adventure

On the last day of ESC2013 I attended a press conference entitled Update in Rhythmology. The purpose was to highlight four rhythm-related studies released at ESC2103. The most noteworthy of the four abstracts involved gender-related issues in atrial fibrillation therapy. French researchers used a 1.6 million patient database (including 1200 French GPs) to come up […]

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Health Care Reform ICD/Pacemaker

CRT: More controversry in medical devices

Heart rhythm doctoring made news again. This time it was a WSJ report on CRT—cardiac resynchronization therapy. What is CRT? (Briefly) CRT devices, formerly known as bi-ventricular devices, involve placing an extra lead in a vein branch of the left ventricle at the time of pacemaker or ICD implantation. The extra lead allows the right […]

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Doctoring ICD/Pacemaker

Real-world thoughts on the life RAFT

This year’s American Heart Association (AHA) meeting is brimming with news. Since the WSJ had ICD devices in its corporate news section today, it seems a good place to start. Here is the summary: (The short version) According to the RAFT study, patients who are ICD candidates, and have a left bundle branch block fare […]

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Doctoring ICD/Pacemaker

The positive side of Implantable Cardiac Devices…

Today was one of those days where you are hopelessly behind schedule, always thinking 3 tasks ahead, and wondering when the finish line will appear. After bemoaning the misuse of ICDs yesterday, today I found two pretty sweet examples of how implantable titanium and silicone can enhance and extend the lives of real patients. The […]