Tag Archives: ablation

Dr Mark Mills The question: medicate, or ablate? To medicate (with anti-arrhythmics), or to ablate: that is the question. In the management of atrial fibrillation (AF), the answer, depending on those questioned and the evidence cited, might be one, the other, both, or neither. Anti-arrhythmic drugs, compared with rate-control drugs, confer no prognostic benefit.1 Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests that ablation confers no mortality benefit over drug therapy.2 This equivocality presents a challenge in clinical practice. Here, consideration is given to each of these standpoints, while highlighting gaps in current knowledge and future direc

Chair of the writing group Professor Christian Sticherling (Universitätsspital Basel, Switzerland) said: “Traditionally we interrupted anticoagulation during device implantation and restarted it afterwards. And we bridged with heparin around the time of the operation. The new recommendation is to continue to give the VKA and perform the operation without any bridging. That shows the lowest rate of perioperative bleeding.” He added: “Also new is the recommendation not to interrupt VKAs during ablation and particularly during pulmonary vein isolation which is the most common type of ablation nowadays.” The paper, produced by the EHRA,

Author: Bennett DH Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012 ISBN: 978-0-470-67493-2, Price: £34.99 This 8th edition of Bennett’s cardiac arrhythmias offers a comprehensive overview of the mechanisms and management of the most commonly encountered types of arrhythmia in clinical practice. A large variety of good quality examples are provided appended with concise explanatory notes, and the layout is uniform throughout. What is particularly noteworthy and different from a standard book of electrocardiography is the fact that not only does the author outline and exemplify mechanisms and types of arrhythmia, but he also provides an introduction to ele

Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists Professor Faiez Zannad (Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France), the first of two guest lecturers, who has been an investigator in three major randomised controlled trials (RCT) of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA) in heart failure,1-3 opened the first session. There was a particular focus on the recent EMPHASIS-HF trial,3 which recruited heart failure (HF) patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction (ejection fraction [EF] ≤30%, or EF 30-35% with QRS duration >130 ms) and mild symptoms (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class II). Eplerenone treatment resulted in a 37% relative

The outcomes of patients with AF are well documented (table 1) but frequently remain underestimated by both patients and health professionals alike. AF is associated with increased rates of death, stroke, other thromboembolic events and heart failure, significant hospitalisation, and reduced quality of life and exercise capacity. Despite these sobering facts, many trials have failed to demonstrate benefit in maintaining sinus rhythm (SR) over anticoagulation and rate control. Yet, quality of life is significantly impaired in patients with AF compared with healthy controls, and post hoc analyses suggest maintaining SR may improve quality of li

New editorial board member We are delighted to welcome Steve Parry to our editorial board. Steve is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University’s Institute for Ageing and Health and Consultant Physician in Acute Medicine and Geriatrics at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. His clinical and research interests lie in syncope and falls, with particular expertise in the cardiovascular causes of the latter. He has published widely on these problems, is Chair of the British Geriatrics Society Cardiovascular Section, co-author of the European Society of Cardiology 2009 Syncope Guidelines and a member of the national Chapter 8 (CHD National Serv