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By Mellanie True Hills January 24, 2012 Summary: In this video, Dr. Hugh Calkins, Johns Hopkins electrophysiologist, discusses the new 2012 atrial fibrillation guidelines for catheter ablation and surgical ablation, which he presented at Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 2012. Reading and watching time is approximately 7–8 minutes At Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 2012, Dr. Hugh …

Summary: Read Dr. John Mandrola’s Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 2012 notes and recap Reading time: Approximately 8–10 minutes for all articles below January 19, 2012 — Dr. John Mandrola, a cardiac electrophysiologist in Louisville, Kentucky, who blogs at Dr. John M, live-blogged from Boston Atrial Fibrillation Symposium this year. We thought his posts were a …

January 16, 2012 Guest post by Dr. John Mandrola Whew. The Boston AF symposium digests slowly. Processing nearly the entirety of AF into just three days borders on ridiculous. Well at least for us regular guys, you know, those of us that doctor, not model things mathematically. This year, I tried something new: posting slightly …

January 14, 2012 Guest post by Dr. John Mandrola Today is the third and final day of the Boston AF symposium. (My editorial comments in italics.) Dr Hugh Calkins started the day by reviewing the major clinical trials of AF ablation. A lot of these I have written about previously. One of the most pivotal …

January 13, 2012 Guest post by Dr. John Mandrola The late-morning sessions addressed the possible mechanism(s) of AF. Many ask what causes AF. The assumption holds that if we can ablate AF, we must know what causes it. This would not be true. One line of thinking holds that disorganized electrical conduction throughout the atria …

January 13, 2012 Guest post by Dr. John Mandrola Dr. Frank Marchlinski moderated the first sessions: The global topic involved pulmonary vein reconnections. This is the bane of AF ablation. Our inability to broach the 80% success rates has most to do with the fact that PVs don’t stay isolated. Everyone wants to enhance the …

January 12, 2012 Guest post by Dr. John Mandrola The second half of the day was fast paced and full of information. Folks, these are rough notes. Hope they help…Again my random thoughts are in italics. Dr Eric Prystowsky led off the afternoon with the best clinical papers of 2011: He is a great speaker …

January 12, 2012 Guest post by Dr. John Mandrola I’ve never tried this before: giving some brief snips of an AF symposium, on the fly. Maybe doing so will help me remember. My comments are in italics. Little proofreads—consider these quick notes. First talk: Dr Jalife. Molecular mechanisms AF:Think fibrosis, or the infiltration of scar …

By Christine Welniak Summary: A randomized trial showed that minimally invasive (mini maze) surgical ablation was more effective, but with more complications, than catheter ablation at treating atrial fibrillation patients who had failed a previous catheter ablation or had an enlarged left atrium. Reading time: Approximately 8–10 minutes January 9, 2012 — According to a …