A new long-term study suggests that adult patients with atrial fibrillation, whose heart rhythm is successfully restored with the minimally invasive procedure of catheter ablation, have a significantly reduced chance of early death from a heart attack or heart failure. [s]Medical News Today[/s] reports that a team from the [b]University of Michigan[/b] at [b]Ann Arbor[/b] showed that death from cardiovascular events dropped by 60% among adults who had their normal heart rhythm successfully restored with catheter ablation. Lead author Dr Hamid Ghanbari says: ‘The benefit of catheter ablation extends beyond improving quality of life for adults with atrial fibrillation. If successful, ablation improves life span.’ He and his colleagues found that even older patients gained the cardiovascular survival benefits of the procedure, as did those with diabetes or a history of stroke.
[link url=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280396.php]Full Medical News Today report[/link]
[link url=http://www.heartrhythmjournal.com/article/S1547-5271(14)00507-4/abstract]Heart Rhythm abstract[/link]