Thanks, mm. This was most interesting. I am certainly going to review this before my next EP visit. I do like his approach of treating the physiological causes of AFIB.

Thanks. The video, I believe, hits the nail on the head. I have been saying that afib is a result or a condition, not a disease. There are too many associations or causes for it to be a disease. This video divides afib into 2 categories: Primary (No cause found. This is very rare. Referred to as Lone Atrial Fib) and secondary (Most prevalent, caused by something else). That "something else, according to tyhis doctor, is atrial pressure that causes atrial stretch and resulting death of cells from that stretch. That death results in scarring (fibrosis). If you don't treat the atrial pressure, ablation won't work or will recur, which so far, has been everyone over the long run. That is why I have been hesitant to push for an ablation, particularly since my afib is persistent/chronic (also aymptomatic). Why should I get an ablation (after going through rhythm meds and risks) to get an ablation that has a higher chance of failure (chronic stage) and likely to recur and require multiple ablations, when the "cause" is not being dealt with. The doctor in the video talks about ARBs as a treatment. I Googled ARBs and found these benefits of ARBs: http://www.uptodate.com/contents/ace-inhibitors-angiotensin-receptor-blockers-and-atrial-fibrillation

Anyway, I believe that the best treatment for persistent afib will be dealing with/treating the cause and better ablation targeting of rotors, as is done with FIRM ablation.

As I suspected, afib is occuring at the cellular level.

petey

I meant "afib will recur".

BTW, this explains why true Lone Afibbers have high ablation success. The doctor never explains how LAF occurs. I would think there is a cause, we just haven't found what it is.

This video is in sync with the notion that fibrosis continues to develop, even with a successful ablation. That is the challenge to "afib begets afib". It would seem to me it is both. If you don't treat the cause of secondary afib, the fibrosis continues. This would be true whether or not you have the ablation or remain on rate control only. If you have Lone Afib (LAF), maybe fibrosis doesn't progress (just a thought).

Thanks all you smart guys for reminding me why I wound up dropping out of college and joining the Army! This guy could have been saying "hibbity pibbidy poop, my cat just took a poop!" and I might have understood it better! I just hope it turns out that "Ablation - GOOD!" works out for me... Oh well.....I am still having a better day than Oscar Pistorius....

It is nice to know that all these brilliant minds are working on finding the true cause of this terrible condition.

Bill

All of you from Maryland no doubt heard the TONS of MedStar commdrcials this weekend for albation surgery? I must have heard 3 or 4 in the course of an hour...I was waiting for a "buy one, get one free" add! I guess this is like anything, once you have a problem you notice every mention of it from then on. I just don't ever remember hearing a commercial for ablation before. They say they are one of the top 50 institutions in the country regarding heart health. Interested to see if this one a one time thing, or we will start hearing more and more offers for ablations on the radio.

Bill