Doctors & patients are saying about 'A-Fib.com'...

"A-Fib.com is a great web site for patients, that is unequaled by anything else out there."

Dr. Douglas L. Packer, MD, FHRS, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

"Jill and I put you and your work in our prayers every night. What you do to help people through this [A-Fib] process is really incredible."

Jill and Steve Douglas, East Troy, WI

“I really appreciate all the information on your website as it allows me to be a better informed patient and to know what questions to ask my EP.

Faye Spencer, Boise, ID, April 2017

“I think your site has helped a lot of patients.”

Dr. Hugh G. Calkins, MD Johns Hopkins,
Baltimore, MD

Doctors & patients are saying about 'Beat Your A-Fib'...

"If I had [your book] 10 years ago, it would have saved me 8 years of hell.”

Roy Salmon, Patient, A-Fib Free,
Adelaide, Australia

"This book is incredibly complete and easy-to-understand for anybody. I certainly recommend it for patients who want to know more about atrial fibrillation than what they will learn from doctors...."

Pierre Jaïs, M.D. Professor of Cardiology, Haut-Lévêque Hospital, Bordeaux, France

"Dear Steve, I saw a patient this morning with your book [in hand] and highlights throughout. She loves it and finds it very useful to help her in dealing with atrial fibrillation."

Dr. Wilber Su,
Cavanaugh Heart Center, Phoenix, AZ

"...masterful. You managed to combine an encyclopedic compilation of information with the simplicity of presentation that enhances the delivery of the information to the reader. This is not an easy thing to do, but you have been very, very successful at it."

Ira David Levin, heart patient,
Rome, Italy

"Within the pages of Beat Your A-Fib, Dr. Steve Ryan, PhD, provides a comprehensive guide for persons seeking to find a cure for their Atrial Fibrillation."

Walter Kerwin, MD, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

2020 AF Symposium Abstract

Pulsed Field Ablation Follow-Up Study

Dr Vivek Reddy, Mt Sinai Hospital

Background: At the 2020 AF Symposium, Dr. Vivek Reddy demonstrated an ablation using Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA). Radically improving ablation treatment, PFA is:

• Tissue selective; affects heart tissue only and not other structures or organs.
• Very fast and precise; long-lasting lesions can be delivered in seconds.
• No direct contact needed only proximity, i.e., millimeters from the targeted tissue.
• Safer than current ablation energy sources, primarily because of its tissue selectivity.
• Offers two catheter shapes designed to fit into various areas of the heart.

But Does Pulsed Field Ablation Endure Long-Term?

The durability of PFA lesions is the focus of Dr. Vivek Reddy’s abstract, Lesion Durability and Safety Outcomes of Pulsed Field Ablation. His research study followed 113 patients who each received a PFA ablation.

Study Description: Patients were enrolled in 3 multi-center clinical trials which used a biphasic PFA waveform with a basket/flower catheter configuration.

‘Dwell time’ is the time transpiring from introduction of the ablation catheter into the body to the catheter’s removal.

Five EPs were chosen to do the PFA ablations. The 88 most recent patients were ablated. They were not under general anesthesia. PFA procedures required around 33 minutes of Left Atrium (LA) dwell time.

Follow-up Testing and Results: At 75-90 days, patients were invasively re-mapped.

Then, after 1 year, the Pulmonary Vein (PV) lesions were re-assessed and safety re-examined.

All PVs remained isolated. The primary safety event rate was 1.8% (1 pericardial tamponade, 1 groin hematoma).

The esophagus was carefully evaluated. There was no evidence of thermal esophageal lesions.

Cerebral MRI revealed no post-procedure swelling (ischemia). There was no PV stenosis. There were no latent safety issues. Invasive re-map procedures showed that lesion durability of the Pulmonary Veins reached 98%.

Study Conclusion

The researchers concluded that Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) demonstrated:

• An excellent safety profile, no unexpected safety issues over a full year of follow-up.
• A very high rate of long-term Pulmonary Vein isolation (durable lesions).

So Does Pulsed Field Ablation Endure Long-Term? Yes!

Editor’s Comments

A year’s follow-up demonstrated that Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) is a significant improvement over current ablation treatments. And these extraordinary results were obtained by 5 operators, which means that PFA is not dependent of the skill of a particular electrophysiologist.

I predict that Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) will supersede all current ablation strategies. It’s almost too good to be true.

Unfortunately, it will probably take 3-5 years for PFA to be available for most A-Fib patients.

Reference for this report

Reddy, V. et al. Lesion Durability and Safety Outcomes of Pulsed Field Ablation in > 100 Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Patients. AF Symposium 2020 brochure, Abstract AFS2020-19, p. 44. Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

If you find any errors on this page, email us. Y Last updated: Wednesday, August 26, 2020