Doctors at Missouri Baptist Are First in St. Louis to Treat A-Fib With New "Freezing" Technology
(firmenpresse) - ST. LOUIS, MO -- (Marketwire) -- 12/22/11 -- Cardiologists at are the first in the St. Louis region to provide a new technology to treat atrial fibrillation (A-Fib), a serious heart rhythm disorder that affects millions of Americans. Using a new balloon catheter system, doctors are able to freeze the small sections in the heart that cause erratic and irregular heart rhythm, offering the potential to cure patients with this life-disrupting arrhythmia.
Dr. Karthik Ramaswamy, medical director of the performed the region's first CryoAblation Balloon Catheter procedure yesterday morning to treat a 53-year-old male patient with recurrent atrial fibrillation. The patient had suffered with this condition for many years, and multiple drug therapies had failed to control the symptoms.
The new non-surgical procedure was recently approved by the FDA. It involves threading a catheter into the heart and freezing problematic areas around the pulmonary veins, which often are the source of erratic electrical signals that cause the irregular heartbeat.
"We are very fortunate to have a new tool to help and potentially cure many patients. Atrial fibrillation is a challenging disorder and most of our current therapies have a number of limitations. The CryoAblation Balloon is a new technology that enables us to isolate and freeze the areas near the heart's pulmonary veins and hopefully cure many patients," said Dr. Ramaswamy "This minimally invasive procedure is designed to safely restore normal heart rhythm."
Unlike traditional ablation treatments that use radiofrequency energy, or heat, to destroy faulty electrical circuits in the heart, the balloon-based technology, , is novel because it ablates cardiac tissue by freezing rather than heating it. A coolant is delivered to a balloon tip of the catheter, which during the brief freezing cycle, adheres to the heart tissue, allowing for greater stability.
According to the (Sustained Treatment of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation) trial, which served as the basis for FDA approval, 69.9 percent of patients treated with Arctic Front achieved treatment success at 12 months, compared to 7.3 percent of patients treated with drug therapy only. The study also demonstrated that treatment with the device is safe, with limited procedure-related adverse events (3.1 percent), and a reduction in adverse events caused by atrial fibrillation when compared to drug therapy.
Mary T. Beck
314-707-6944
Themen in dieser Pressemitteilung:
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 22.12.2011 - 12:34 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 1068477
Anzahl Zeichen: 0
contact information:
Contact person:
Town:
ST. LOUIS, MO
Phone:
Kategorie:
Surgery & Treatments
Anmerkungen:
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 183 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"Doctors at Missouri Baptist Are First in St. Louis to Treat A-Fib With New "Freezing" Technology
"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
Missouri Baptist Medical Center (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
