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

Accuray, Inc. Cyberknife

Technology & Innovations

Emerging Technology: The Cyberknife & Radiosurgery

by Steve S. Ryan, PhD

A new ablation technology, radiosurgery, used initially in the field of oncology (on cancerous tumors), is minimally invasive, and provides accurate placement of beam energy that is guided by imaging.

This technology may have inherent advantages over catheter energy delivery, which relies on perfect tissue contact for placement of continuous lesions.

Using 3-D treatment planning software and technology, the energy delivery is highly focused so as to minimize any possible long term radiation effect on other organs nearby. Radiosurgery can reliably control and predict lesion size for an individual patient’s anatomy.

Radiosurgery application for treatment of arrhythmia is in pre-clinical studies. Radiosurgery technologies and enabling software have been developed by Accuray Inc. (Cyberknife), CyberHeart Inc. and CardioPlan.

Editor’s Comments:

The concept of this non to minimally invasive energy delivery is intriguing. Though there are many obstacles and a possibly huge learning curve to applying Radiosurgery to the treatment of A-Fib, the potential is incredible! Imagine a completely non-invasive procedure to replace catheter ablation and surgery! We wish CyberHeart the best and will continue to follow their progress.

References for this article

Maguire, Patrick and Fogarty, Thomas. Education: Minimally Invasive Cardiac Arrhythmia Ablation: Use of Radiosurgery. Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society News Sept. 2012, No. 3. http://aphrs.org/news_images/2012_03/APHRS-No.3-0928.pdf

Posted October 2014

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