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MGH Offers Hope For Patients Suffering Common Irregular Heart Rhythm
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 Individuals suffering from atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heart rhythm, can now be treated at Marin General Hospital with a technique that holds real hope as a cure for this debilitating condition.
Unlike any other facility on the West Coast, Marin General has attracted a team that has used this technique successfully on a high volume of patients.
Cardiologist Dr. Richard Gray, medical director of the Sutter Pacific Medical Center, said, "Although many treatments for atrial fibrillation are offered, they are often ineffective and not long lasting.
"Now, for the first time we have something that holds real hope for a cure. We have a procedure that will return people to a regular rhythm. The technique is a major advance in the treatment of irregular heartbeat. A high percentage of patients with irregular heartbeats can benefit from this."
Patients are treated for this condition in Marin General's Electrophysiology Laboratory, one of only 12 labs in California. The technique is quicker than most others and with dramatically fewer complications and can only be done in an EP Lab equipped with the most advanced medical technology.
Salwa Beheiry, RN, director of the Electrophysiology Program's at MGH and CPMC, said, "Five million Americans are affected by atrial fibrillation. It is most common among older people. The older you get the more likely you are to have it. A large percentage of the population can benefit from the technique that we offer."
Atrial fibrillation is a chaotic, irregularity of the heartbeat from the upper two chambers of the heart and can lead to clots and strokes.
People suffering from AF may feel dizzy, lightheaded or weak. They may complain of fluttering in the chest, shortness of breath or, sometimes, chest pains. While the condition is not necessarily life threatening, it has a major impact on the quality of a person's life.
For years, the standard treatment for atrial fibrillation was medication, Gray explained.
"But the difficulty is that once you have AF for more than a year, it's hard to return to regular heartbeat even with medication," he said. "At some point the medication stops working."
Usually the next step in the treatment process is cardioversion - a low voltage shock to the chest wall to restore the heart's normal rhythm - but even this has to be repeated and eventually stops working.
Atrial fibrillation treatment sometimes also includes the implantation of pacemakers after ablation (localized disruption of electrical pathways in the heart).
In the past few years, a small group of electrophysiologists began using a procedure known as localized Pulmonary Vein Isolation (PVI) a form of ablation.
The technique used at Marin General - a variation of PVI - is available at only a hand full of hospitals in the U.S. and is done by fewer than a half dozen electrophysiologists.
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