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

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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

Video: When Drug Therapy Fails: Why Patients Consider Catheter Ablation

For Insidermedicine.com. Dr. Susan M. Sharma discusses why patients with atrial fibrillation turn to ablation when drug therapy doesn’t work. Presenting research findings by David J. Wilber and MD; Carlo Pappone, MD, Dr. Sharma discusses the success rates of drug therapy versus catheter ablation. (See transcript below.) (3:00 min.) Published by Insidermedicine.com.

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Transcript of this video

Transcript- Insidermedicine:

“Individuals suffering from atrial fibrillation that does not respond to a drug designed to treat heart rhythm disorders would likely do better with catheter ablation than with more drugs, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Here is some information about atrial fibrillation:

• It is the most common type of heart arrhythmia

• Untreated, it can lead to fatigue and stroke

• It can be treated with drugs that stabilize heart rhythm, called antiarrhythmics, or with catheter ablation, in which the section of the heart that is the source of the arrhythmia is burned away, or ablated.

Researchers from Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood randomly assigned over 150 individuals with atrial fibrillation to treatment with antiarrhythmic drug therapy or catheter ablation. All of the individuals had taken an antiarrhythmic drug in the past without success.

At the end of a 9-month evaluation period, 84% of the individuals who received drug therapy continued to have symptoms to such a degree that treatment was considered a failure. In contrast, only 33% of those who underwent catheter ablation experienced a failure of treatment.

Three months after the start of therapy, those who received catheter ablation had significantly greater increases in their quality of life than those on drug therapy, and this improvement was maintained throughout the study.

Today’s research suggests that individuals with atrial fibrillation who do not experience relief from an antiarrhythmic drug should be immediately treated with catheter ablation rather than additional drugs.”

Research Reference for this Video

Wilber, D., Pappone, C. et al. Comparison of Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy and Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation in Patients With Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation A Randomized Controlled Trial. JAMA. 2010;303(4):333-340. URL: http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/185277

If you find any errors on this page, email us. Y Last updated: Saturday, August 4, 2018