Convergent Procedure Building Support For Interdisciplinary Approach To AF

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• Langue: English

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Convergent Procedure Building Support For

Interdisciplinary Approach To AF

PR Newswire

MORRISVILLE, North Carolina, June 5, 2012

- New JCE Article Sets High Bar For Determining Ablation Success

MORRISVILLE, North Carolina

,

June 5, 2012

/PRNewswire/ -- nContact, Inc., the

leading innovator in epicardial ablation devices, today announced an article was

recently published in the

Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology

entitled

"Low Rate of Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence Verified by Implantable Loop

Recorder Monitor Following a Convergent Epicardial and Endocardial Ablation of

Atrial Fibrillation." The article chronicles the development of an interdisciplinary

approach for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, the Convergent Procedure, and

illustrates the strong success of the site's program. Outcomes were determined

by the most stringent methodology, 24 hour loop recorders, which

demonstrated unparalleled success in this patient cohort. Physician reaction to

the paper has been positive.

"This paper may be reviewed in hindsight as a pivotal paper in determining the

true standard for success of an ablation procedure. The paper documents the

evolution of a closed chest, truly minimally invasive interdisciplinary procedure,

the Convergent Procedure, its early challenges and lessons learned, the

protocols developed to improve and insure clinical safety, and the successful

patient experience as monitored by a continuous loop recorder, Medtronic's

Reveal XT. The Convergent Procedure has proven itself under today's most

stringent monitoring standards, and sets a new and higher standard for clinical

and patient outcome success," said lead author Prof. Dr. Borut Gersak, Chief of

Cardiac Surgery, University Medical Center,

Ljubljana, Slovenia

.

"The data is impressive, and the results are consistent with results we have

obtained utilizing the Convergent Procedure in our hospital, and abstracts

presented at Boston AF Symposium and the Heart Rhythm Society Scientific

Sessions (HRS). This is important because the procedure can be standardized to

obtain consistent results among a variety of sites. The results with patients in

sinus rhythm off anti-arrhythmic drugs (AADs) of 74% are even more

impressive because 94% of the patients were persistent or long standing

persistent patients. HRS defines catheter outcome success as 'freedom from AF

and off AADs at 40%' for persistent patients and 30% for long standing

persistent patients," said Dr. Kenneth Civello, Cardiac Electrophysiologist, Our

Lady Of The Lake Regional Medical Center,

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

, USA, who

reported on over 104 consecutive Convergent patients in a key podium

presentation at HRS earlier this month.

"The article's take away message for me is that epicardial ablation should be

viewed as complimentary ablation to traditional catheter approaches to

improve outcomes, and to expand treatment capabilities to the broader AF

patient population suffering from persistent or permanent atrial fibrillation with

left atrial enlargement. It's the combination of technologies and the epicardial-

endocardial approach that is yielding results," said Dr. Malte Kuniss, Chief of

Electrophysiology, Kerckhoff Clinic in Bad Nauheim,

Germany

.

"This is an important paper because the Convergent Procedure addresses atrial

fibrillation in a scientific manner by addressing both endocardial and epicardial

substrates in a comprehensive anatomic approach. Its success can be related

back to the large body of literature on lesion patterns, lesion completeness,

substrate activation, anatomical remodeling, atrial stretch, and atrial function.

This is not a potential magical silver bullet, but rather the use of an increasingly

relevant and rapidly growing ablation technology to augment existing

strategies," said Prof. Dr. Paul Mounsey, Chief of Electrophysiology, University

of North Carolina Hospital,

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

, USA.

About nContact, Inc.

nContact, Inc. is the leading innovator in epicardial ablation devices and

techniques. Its mission is to transform the underserved arrhythmia market

through the advancement of less invasive, more efficacious ablation

alternatives for cardiac arrhythmias.

Its lead technologies, the EPi-Sense™ and Numeris® Coagulation System with

VisiTrax®, have CE Mark approval in

Europe

for the coagulation of cardiac

tissue for the treatment of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter.

The Numeris® Coagulation System with VisiTrax® is indicated for endoscopic

coagulation of cardiac tissue in

the United States

. The EPi-Sense™ device is not

available in

the United States

. nContact was founded in 2005 and is

headquartered in

Morrisville, North Carolina

, U.S.A.

Media Contacts

Beth Rose

Kimberly Muscara

nContact, Inc

The Ruth Group

T [phone]

T [phone]

[e-mail]

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