Cardiophile MD

Ashman phenomenon is a form of aberrancy which was described by Gouaux and Ashman in atrial fibrillation [Gouaux JL, Ashman R. Auricular fibrillation with aberration stimulating ventricular paroxysmal tachycardia. Am Heart J. 1947;34:366]. Ashman phenomenon is aberrancy due to the change in refractory period with varying cycle length. The refractory period increases with the preceding [...]

Holiday Heart Syndrome is the name given to atrial fibrillation which occurs after binge drinking. The original description was in 1978: Ettinger PO, Wu CF, De La Cruz C Jr, Weisse AB, Ahmed SS, Regan TJ. Arrhythmias and the “Holiday Heart”: alcohol-associated cardiac rhythm disorders. Am Heart J. 1978 May;95(5):555-62 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/636996. This study reported 32 [...]

Elective cardioversion for atrial fibrillation / flutter is often done in conditions in which the atrial booster function is needed as in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Sometimes it is performed after balloon mitral valvotomy as well. In situations in which it is likely to recur, anti arrhythmic therapy may be continued after the procedure. Sometimes when the [...]

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia and the incidence increases as the age advances. It can cause effort intolerance in those with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction due to loss of atrial booster function for ventricular filling. Thromboembolism is another risk associated with atrial fibrillation. Acute onset of atrial fibrillation is one of the [...]

Pulmonary vein isolation has been found to be superior to AV node ablation and biventricular pacing in atrial fibrillation with heart failure in a study published in NEJM today (Khan MN et al, NEJM 2008;359:1778-1785). PABA-CHF Investigators evaluated pulmonary vein isolation vs AV node ablation and biventricular pacing in patients with drug refractory atrial fibrillation and [...]