Medical device manufacturers seeking regulatory clearances to expand catheter ablation as a treatment for atrial fibrillation got a boost from a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
The 19-center study compared the effectiveness of ablation procedures to one of five different drug therapies in treating irregular heartbeats. It found that 70 of the 106 patients, or 66 percent, receiving ablation procedures remained symptom-free a year later, versus only 10 of 61, or 16 percent, of patients treated with arrythymia drugs. All 167 patients participating in study had previously tried at least one drug to control fibrillatons.