Monday, May 4, 2009

DCRI thinktank leads to plan for national Afib registry
By Kelly Shaw, DCRI Communications

The recent Cardiac Safety Research Consortium thinktank – a partnership between the DCRI and the Food and Drug Administration – served as the launching ground for a national registry on ablation procedures to treat atrial fibrillation.

The DCRI's Mitchell Krucoff, MD, is the co-chairman of the Consortium Executive Committee. The thinktank, held in Washington , D.C. , was designed to discuss the safety of atrial fibrillation ablation.

Atrial fibrillation is an irregular heart beat caused by problems with the heart's electrical system. It can make patients feel like their heart is racing and can increase the risk of stroke or heart attack. Between 2.3 million and 5.6 million adults in the U.S. are believed to have the condition. The ablation procedure creates scar tissue that can block the irregular electrical signals from the heart, but there is little long-term data on ablation outcomes.

Currently, there are only two cardiac ablation catheters that are specifically approved for treating atrial fibrillation, but other devices to treat general ablation are also often used to treat atrial fibrillation.

The Consortium group involved in the thinktank will form a steering committee to define the missions and objectives of the new registry. A National Cardiovascular Data Registry led by the Mayo Clinic will begin to develop the minimum data that the registry will need to capture.

The goals for the national registry include helping to assess the safety of ablation procedures and developing practice guidelines. Participants at the thinktank recommended that the registry should aim to gather long-term data on patient outcomes, and should attempt to gather data on patients who aren't treated at major academic medical centers.