Cold to treat the most common form of arrhythmia

(Image: Pixabay CC0) - Cryoblation results may lead to revised treatment of atrial fibrillation. A study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrates the long-term effectiveness of a procedure used to treat the most common form of abnormal heart rhythm, atrial fibrillation. This evidence and the conclusions of previous studies, which demonstrated the safety and medium-term effectiveness of this procedure, could lead to a revision of the recommendations concerning the treatment of atrial fibrillation, and thus allow a greater number of people to benefit from its advantages. This is the belief of one of the authors of the study, Jean Champagne , professor at the Faculty of Medicine and researcher at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec (IUCPQ). Atrial fibrillation is caused by a disruption of the electrical signals that control the contractions of the heart. The condition, which affects about 200,000 people in Canada, begins with isolated, transient episodes of arrhythmia. "If nothing is done, the disorder evolves into a persistent and then a permanent form of the disease, which increases the risk of heart failure and stroke," says Professor Champagne, who is also an electrophysiologist at the IUCPQ.