Well put Petey!

Yea,
I guess maybe it's safer to pass. Who knows?

heart 2222 - Sorry for the delay in responding but I only check in every week or so. To try and answer your questions: The trial I'm involved in does not pay any medical bills; I do get a $100 gift card every 3 months for the follow ups. The catheter that was used is called the ThermoCool SmartTouch catheter manufactured by Biosense Webster, Inc. It is identical to most other radiofrequency ablation catheters in wide use today and I was the 25th out of 25 to get it when I had my ablation in December. My EP has been doing RF ablations for 8-10 years and had used this device before with a dozen patients with no post-procedural problems. I have not had any afib since the procedure and am off all medications except warfarin. Other than a very sore lower back, I did not have any pain after the procedure. If you'd like to chat about it further, you can email me at leehugs46@yahoo.com.

Thanks for your email, hughes! I sent you a note.
How did you get off all your meds except coumadin so quickly?
So glad your procedure went so well!!

One of the things that would bother me, is that you do not have a long term relationship with your EP. How does he feel about it and how will this effect your ablation. Although you are trusting him for his experience for the ablation do you trust him for a trial?

Hughersrl7 had the benefit of being asked by his EP instead of the hospital and it appears he has a longer relationship with him.

These are just my thoughts and ultimately, these have to be your decisions. Heady stuff.

Take care. Joan

I have only met my EP once for a consult and briefly during the Tikosyn trial.

I really like my EP and feel that he's extremely qualified, but don't have that long term relationship that some of you have with your EP.

I just spoke to my EP about the clinical trial today. He felt that the ability to get feedback during the procedure to know how far to burn would be very helpful. He didn't think there would be more risk and could potentially help the success. It is now being used in Europe, however their qualifications are not nearly as stringent as the FDA. He hasn't used this catheter yet, I might be the first one. But he said the catheter is probably similar to use as the regular catheter used now. The one study published is:

TOCCATA is now published as: A novel radiofrequency ablation catheter using contact force sensing: Toccata study.

Authors: Kuck KH, Reddy VY, Schmidt B, Natale A, Neuzil P, Saoudi N, Kautzner J, Herrera C, Hindricks G, Jas P, Nakagawa H, Lambert H, Shah DC.

Journal: Heart Rhythm. 2012 Jan;9(1):18-23. Epub 2011 Aug 26
But I don't see much info about the results. I need to investigate it further.
Petey, do you know of any way to contact any of these authors?
It does bother me that I might be the first he uses the experimental catheter on.
I"m interested in all of your thoughts?

I think Mellanie True Hills can link you up. Here is her report on Toccata and and Thermocool:

http://www.stopafib.org/catheter-ablation/technology-contactforce.cfm

Reddy and Natale are EP Rock Stars. Natale is in San Francisco and Austin and Reddy is in NYC.

Vivek Y. Reddy, MD
(212) 241-7114
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Cardiology
One Gustave L Levy Pl
Box 1030
New York, NY 10029


Andrea Natale, MD, FHRS
(512) 544-8186
St. Davids Medical Center
3000 N IH35
Ste 720
Austin, TX 787California Pacific
Medical Center

2100 Webster St., Suite 521
San Francisco, CA 94115

Salwa Beheiry
Ph: (415) 923-6500
Fx: (415) 923-650505

Talk to Salwa (RN). She is very friendly and knowledgeable.

petey

Excellent, Petey!! Thanks a lot!!

wow, the adverse side effects from the cath is not good. Also the success rate they quoted is worse than the usual 70% success . I'm not feeling good about this. I will try to call those numbers tomorrow. THANK YOU PETEY!!!

Glad to know that Natale here in San Francisco is one of the
"Rock Stars" He would be the EP I would ask my cardiologist to refer me to for a second opinion. They are both at CPMC.

Annette

Petey, you have the correct phone # for Dr. Reddy, but the wrong address. He is on 5th Avenue in NYC. I've got the directions to his office here. I've also decided against the Watchman trial. After thinking it over, I don't want to get it installed and come back to Idaho and doctors here by clueless about it. I also don't really want to be a guinea pig, although I trust him completely. I'm really looking forward to seeing him though.

Petey,
I tried calling both numbers for Dr. Reddy and Dr. Natale-both are male???

I dont' think I will get thru to the doc, so they are trying to find me an asst or someone to talk to.

They left a message for Salwa Beheiry who was out sick today.
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THAT INFO!! You are a master researcher!!

Petey,
I did connect with Anaya, Dr. Reddy's research coordinator and she had a wealth of info. She was VERY nice and talked to me for a long time. She thinlks the results are quite good so far, but her study just closed, so data not available yet. She did say there is a learning curve with the catheter though which kinda concerns me if I will be the first one.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KEEN RESEARCHING!! I couldn't find as much as you gave me!!! It didn't come up on google from what I could see. I just got the info that the company itself provides-kinda biased.