Medical prowess has exploded in the past decade. Â The toolbox of therapeutic options has grown so large that often times, the most challenging aspect of patient care is in matching the right tool to the right patient. Â There is no better example than the expanding capability to ablate atrial fibrillation. Now that I can successfully […]
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Freezing the heart is in the news. Â The STOP-AF trial was presented at ACC, and it sure has generated much excitement about atrial fibrillation ablation. Â This is a good thing. However, as is the norm in the era of instantaneous news, the press reports read much differently than reality. The propaganda has an effect. I […]
Joan has left an excellent comment on my recent 2019 AF ablation update. She brings up many important issues. Let’s dissect it. Q: Joan asks if it is common to see patients who think they are cured after AF ablation but are still in AF? A: The scenario I described in my previous post is […]
Doctors like me have performed AF ablation for more than a decade without knowing whether the major procedure improves outcomes. That sounds crazy but it’s true. Until now, the only evidence we had that doing all these burns or freezes in the heart helped people was that it made people feel better than they did […]
This post is an introduction to commentary I made recently over at theHeart.org on Medscape. Gender features in the discussion, but there are lessons for men and women with AF. *** A large study from a group of Stanford researchers made three big observations on AF ablation: Women, compared with men, presented for first AF […]
Earlier this month I promised to put together teaching points from the Rich Peverley story. His was an interesting case of sudden collapse that likely occurred as a result of atrial fibrillation therapy rather than atrial fibrillation itself. This was my original report: Important lessons from the collapse of NHL player Rich Peverley (BTW: It […]
Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation continues to ascend into the mainstream. The treasure of eliminating AF [symptoms] without taking pills stokes the demand for a fix. People like fixes. Technological advances in catheters and mapping systems along with the formation of neural pathways (skills) in ablationists have fueled the growth of AF ablation. The epidemic […]
True or False: Local TV “health reporting” is a reliable source of medical information? Let me tell you a story, as a hint. Just when one thinks mainstream media cannot sink much lower, we witness this fantastically misleading and sophomoric reporting, on the complex treatment options for atrial fibrillation. Their moniker says that they are “working for […]
The Western AF symposium may have had corporate sponsors, but it was no boondoggle. The sessions start at 0715 and go through 1830. Your head spins at the end of the conference. I learned a lot. Here are some fast-writing thoughts: New Energy Source for Ablation Electroporation looks to be a promising new energy source […]
The European Cardiology Congress, ESC as it is called, has grown into the largest medical meeting in the world. This year, more than 31,000 attendees from 153 countries came to Barcelona. I was busy. Here is an update of the big stories: Inflammation:Â Experts agree that inflammation associates with heart disease. One of the keys […]
Our brains can easily fool us. No experienced doctor would deny the power of the placebo effect. Today I want to discuss the nocebo effect, which occurs when negative expectations of something causes it to have a more negative effect than it otherwise would. Drugs can exert a strong nocebo effect. If your brain thinks […]