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Heart diseases and chronic cardiovascular issues are on a constant rise. Out of them all, one of the most common occurrences is the irregular heart beat that can further lead to conditions that can affect one’s overall well being and can even be life threatening without proper treatments.
A new study (R) conducted by the researchers from the imperial College London have found a further and deeper understanding about the prospects of irregular heartbeat that could further help with more treatment options. As per the reports from the researchers, they mentioned saying that it is the chaotic electrical signals causing the irregular heartbeat that further cause issues in the treatments actually working.
Finding this, the researchers took to further analyse how the electrical signals move on the inside as well as the outside of the heart muscles to further establish a better understanding about the situation. This is what made them conclude the reason why the corrective surgeries are not always the most effective in this situation.
This specific observation could help improve the impacts of the surgeries by targeting the area specific treatments on the heart or even avoid the surgical process for the patients for whom it will be completely futile altogether.
For those unaware, according to the statistics, it is suggested that the condition of Atrial Fibrillation is the most common contributor behind the condition of arrhythmia in the individuals and is also the primary cause behind the strokes and heart attacks that many are dying from. The rate of this condition is on the rise which is why finding better and more effective treatment options is a necessity above anything else.
In the current medical practice, the most common form of treatment for this condition that majority of the people opt for is to burn areas of the heart from underneath which are thought to be causing the irregularity in the first place. But, this surgical procedure, also known as catheter ablation is only effective in just 50% of the patients.
Some of the clinicians in the United States recently discovered the fact that the condition of Atrial Fibrillation is also associated with some of the most common electrical impulses, both on the inside as well as the outside of the heart. This was an insight that was not known previously.
Following this finding, some of the physicists and the cardiologists based out of Imperial College London has prepared a model of the Atrial Fibrillation that explains the differing patterns associated with this condition. This specific model is also believed to explain why there is a 50% failure in the surgical process for AF that is conducted nowadays.
Further shedding some light on this, the researcher further explained saying that this model helps predict why the current method of burning the heart tissues from the inside might not work because the irregular impulses could be outside instead. For patients like these, proper optimization of the surgical approach could further help in increasing the chances of success.
The model also explained that in some patients, the condition of their heart is damaged to a very bad extent stating that even if the surgery is conducted and they get relief for the time being, a new location around can come up in the future, further causing issues.
For patients like these, surgery is often not the best option in the first place. It is thus the understanding of the condition of AF could further help streamline better treatment options that can help them recover in the long run.
The model is currently based out of some of the important theories in physics that align perfectly with the observations that the individuals have had surrounding the electrical impulses.
To further test out this concept, the researchers are not focused on taking a clinical approach to this and work with real patients who suffer from this condition. They are focusing on the current treatment administered to these patients to find where it is that something could be going wrong.
Having a better insight into this could very well help the researchers find a better approach for their study and help derive better treatment options with improve success rates.
Max Falkenberg, a PhD student in the Department of Physics at Imperial, who is also the lead author of the study clarified stating that their model helps explain the details of the failure of the surgical methods opted for the condition of the AF. He further stated saying that the main aim with the model is to find a better insight into the ways one can determine whether or not the surgery is the best option for the patient or it is better to skip out on the same.
Professor Kim Christensen, who supervised the project stated saying that they do have hopes from this study and believe that the future development of the same can help a lot of people suffering from AF.
