• CryoCor (San Diego), focused on the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, reported today the publication of a European study of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients treated with its Cardiac Cryoablation System to evaluate the role of atrial flutter in the recurrence of AF and the effectiveness of an ablation strategy focused on isolating the pulmonary veins to treat the AF. The study was published in the Dec. 11, 2007, issue ofCirculation. The study prospectively evaluated the best catheter ablation strategy in patients with paroxysmal AF with and without concomitant right atrial flitter (AFl). During follow-up averaging 26 months, the authors found that electrical isolation of the pulmonary veins by catheter ablation was successful in patients without concomitant (AFl) at an 82% success rate. In patients with concomitant AFl, the combination of ablation for AFL and pulmonary vein isolation alone to treat AF was frequently insufficient in preventing recurrences of AF (recurrence rate of 67%). The authors concluded that those patients with AFl and AF may require additional sites of ablation to effectively treat their atrial fibrillation. Luz-Maria Rodriguez, MD, senior author of the study, said, “This is the first time that an ablation strategy for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter has been systematically studied. This has implications for the tools that a clinician may use to treat these atrial arrhythmias. Based on this study, we do not believe that it will be sufficient to simply isolate the pulmonary veins in a significant proportion of patients.”
