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CONFIRM: Novel ablation approach promising treatment for AF
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Heart Rhythm Society 32nd Annual Scientific Sessions
SAN FRANCISCO — Compared with conventional ablation alone, patients who had focal impulse and rotor modulation ablation followed by conventional ablation had improved freedom from atrial fibrillation at 2 years, suggested new data.
The Conventional Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation With or Without Focal Impulse and Rotor Modulation (CONFIRM) included 103 patients with AF, of which 67% had persistent AF, which, according to Sanjiv Narayan, MD, PhD, study researcher and associate professor of medicine in residence at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, is a more difficult disease to treat and makes the present study different from some previous research which included mostly earlier stage disease. The patients were either treated with focal impulse and rotor modulation (FIRM) ablation prior to conventional ablation for pulmonary vein isolation (n=32) or conventional ablation alone (n=71).
According to results, rotors and focal drivers were observed in 98% of AF patients. FIRM ablation led to termination of or substantially slowed AF within 10 minutes of ablation when preceding conventional ablation. FIRM also dramatically improved two-year freedom from AF when compared with conventional ablation alone (84% vs. 50%).
“The promising results of the CONFIRM study show that with a single procedure we can improve the success rate of conventional ablation,” said Narayan in a press conference. “This means we should reevaluate the way we are thinking about AF as a rhythm and potentially ablating it.”
For more information:
- Narayan S. LB-04. Presented at: Heart Rhythm Society 32nd Annual Scientific Sessions; May 4-7, 2011; San Francisco.
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