Accessibility Statement Skip Navigation
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • +44 (0)20 7454 5110
  • Client Login
  • Send a Release
Return to PR Newswire homepage
  • News
  • Products
  • Contact
When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type.

Searching for your content...

No results found. Please change your search terms and try again.
  • News in Focus
      • Browse News Releases

      • All Public Company News
      • All Multimedia News
      • View All News Releases

      • Regulatory News

      • D/A/CH Regulatory News
      • UK Regulatory News
      • View All Regulatory News

  • Business & Money
      • Auto & Transportation

      • Aerospace & Defense
      • Air Freight
      • Airlines & Aviation
      • Automotive
      • Maritime & Shipbuilding
      • Railroads & Intermodal Transportation
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Transportation, Trucking & Railroad
      • Travel
      • Trucking & Road Transportation
      • View All Auto & Transportation

      • Business Technology

      • Blockchain
      • Broadcast Tech
      • Computer & Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Components
      • Electronic Design Automation
      • Financial Technology
      • High Tech Security
      • Internet Technology
      • Nanotechnology
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Semiconductors
      • View All Business Technology

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film & Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Financial Services & Investing

      • Accounting News & Issues
      • Acquisitions, Mergers & Takeovers
      • Banking & Financial Services
      • Bankruptcy
      • Bond & Stock Ratings
      • Conference Call Announcements
      • Contracts
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Dividends
      • Earnings
      • Earnings Forecasts & Projections
      • Financing Agreements
      • Insurance
      • Investments Opinions
      • Joint Ventures
      • Mutual Funds
      • Private Placement
      • Real Estate
      • Restructuring & Recapitalisation
      • Sales Reports
      • Shareholder Activism
      • Shareholder Meetings
      • Stock Offering
      • Stock Split
      • Venture Capital
      • View All Financial Services & Investing

      • General Business

      • Awards
      • Commercial Real Estate
      • Corporate Expansion
      • Earnings
      • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
      • Human Resource & Workforce Management
      • Licensing
      • New Products & Services
      • Obituaries
      • Outsourcing Businesses
      • Overseas Real Estate (non-US)
      • Personnel Announcements
      • Real Estate Transactions
      • Residential Real Estate
      • Small Business Services
      • Socially Responsible Investing
      • Surveys, Polls & Research
      • Trade Show News
      • View All General Business

  • Science & Tech
      • Consumer Technology

      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Blockchain
      • Cloud Computing/Internet of Things
      • Computer Electronics
      • Computer Hardware
      • Computer Software
      • Consumer Electronics
      • Cryptocurrency
      • Data Analytics
      • Electronic Commerce
      • Electronic Gaming
      • Financial Technology
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Multimedia & Internet
      • Peripherals
      • Social Media
      • STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)
      • Supply Chain/Logistics
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Consumer Technology

      • Energy & Natural Resources

      • Alternative Energies
      • Chemical
      • Electrical Utilities
      • Gas
      • General Manufacturing
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Oil & Energy
      • Oil & Gas Discoveries
      • Utilities
      • Water Utilities
      • View All Energy & Natural Resources

      • Environ­ment

      • Conservation & Recycling
      • Environmental Issues
      • Environmental Policy
      • Environmental Products & Services
      • Green Technology
      • Natural Disasters
      • View All Environ­ment

      • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Aerospace & Defence
      • Agriculture
      • Chemical
      • Construction & Building
      • General Manufacturing
      • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation & Air-Conditioning)
      • Machinery
      • Machine Tools, Metalworking & Metallurgy
      • Mining
      • Mining & Metals
      • Paper, Forest Products & Containers
      • Precious Metals
      • Textiles
      • Tobacco
      • View All Heavy Industry & Manufacturing

      • Telecomm­unications

      • Carriers & Services
      • Mobile Entertainment
      • Networks
      • Peripherals
      • Telecommunications Equipment
      • Telecommunications Industry
      • VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
      • Wireless Communications
      • View All Telecomm­unications

  • Lifestyle & Health
      • Consumer Products & Retail

      • Animals & Pets
      • Beers, Wines & Spirits
      • Beverages
      • Bridal Services
      • Cannabis
      • Cosmetics & Personal Care
      • Fashion
      • Food & Beverages
      • Furniture & Furnishings
      • Home Improvement
      • Household, Consumer & Cosmetics
      • Household Products
      • Jewellery
      • Non-Alcoholic Beverages
      • Office Products
      • Organic Food
      • Product Recalls
      • Restaurants
      • Retail
      • Supermarkets
      • Toys
      • View All Consumer Products & Retail

      • Entertain­ment & Media

      • Advertising
      • Art
      • Books
      • Entertainment
      • Film & Motion Picture
      • Magazines
      • Music
      • Publishing & Information Services
      • Radio & Podcast
      • Television
      • View All Entertain­ment & Media

      • Health

      • Biometrics
      • Biotechnology
      • Clinical Trials & Medical Discoveries
      • Dentistry
      • FDA Approval
      • Fitness/Wellness
      • Health Care & Hospitals
      • Health Insurance
      • Infection Control
      • International Medical Approval
      • Medical Equipment
      • Medical Pharmaceuticals
      • Mental Health
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Supplementary Medicine
      • View All Health

      • Sports

      • General Sports
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Sporting Events
      • Sports Equipment & Accessories
      • View All Sports

      • Travel

      • Amusement Parks & Tourist Attractions
      • Gambling & Casinos
      • Hotels & Resorts
      • Leisure & Tourism
      • Outdoors, Camping & Hiking
      • Passenger Aviation
      • Travel Industry
      • View All Travel

  • Policy & Public Interest
      • Policy & Public Interest

      • Animal Welfare
      • Corporate Social Responsibility
      • Economic News, Trends & Analysis
      • Education
      • Environmental
      • European Government
      • Labour & Union
      • Natural Disasters
      • Not For Profit
      • Public Safety
      • View All Policy & Public Interest

  • People & Culture
      • People & Culture

      • Aboriginal, First Nations & Native American
      • African American
      • Asian American
      • Children
      • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
      • Hispanic
      • Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual
      • Men's Interest
      • People with Disabilities
      • Religion
      • Senior Citizens
      • Veterans
      • Women
      • View All People & Culture

  • Overview
  • Distribution
  • Paid Placement
  • Multichannel Amplification
  • Disclosure Services
  • SocialBoost
  • Rooms
    • MediaRoom
    • ESG Rooms
  • AI Tools
  • General Enquiries
  • Media Enquiries
  • Partnerships
  • Hamburger menu
  • Cision PR Newswire UK provides press release distribution, targeting, monitoring, and marketing services
  • Send a Release
    • Phone

    • +44 (0)20 7454 5110 from 8 AM - 5:30 PM GMT

    • ALL CONTACT INFO
    • Contact Us

      +44 (0)20 7454 5110
      from 8 AM - 5:30 PM GMT

  • Client Login
  • Send a Release
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • News in Focus
    • Browse News Releases
    • Regulatory News
  • Business & Money
    • Auto & Transportation
    • Business Technology
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Financial Services & Investing
    • General Business
  • Science & Tech
    • Consumer Technology
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Environ­ment
    • Heavy Industry & Manufacturing
    • Telecomm­unications
  • Lifestyle & Health
    • Consumer Products & Retail
    • Entertain­ment & Media
    • Health
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Policy & Public Interest
    • Policy & Public Interest
  • People & Culture
    • People & Culture
  • Client Login
  • Send a Release
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Overview
  • Distribution
  • Paid Placement
  • Multichannel Amplification
  • Disclosure Services
  • Cision Communications Cloud®
  • AI Tools
  • Client Login
  • Send a Release
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • General Enquiries
  • Media Enquiries
  • Partnerships
  • Client Login
  • Send a Release
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists

Six-Center Study of Chronic Atrial Fibrillation Indicates Importance of Confirming Conduction Block Intra-operatively in Radiofrequency Ablation


News provided by

nContact, Inc.

18 Jul, 2011, 11:01 GMT

Share this article

Share toX

Share this article

Share toX

MORRISVILLE, North Carolina, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

nContact, Inc. (nContact), the leading minimally invasive epicardial ablation device manufacturer, reports with interest an article published in the European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery that demonstrates the importance of a comprehensive epicardial lesion pattern combined with diagnostics to confirm conduction block in radiofrequency ablation for the successful treatment of persistent and long standing persistent atrial fibrillation (AF).

AF is the most common cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeat), affecting an estimated 5 million Americans and millions more worldwide.  The study focused on persistent and longstanding persistent AF patients who have historically been the most challenging populations to treat because the condition is typically associated with structural heart disease, resulting in enlarged atria.  The article discusses potential required elements to bring viable treatment options to this patient population.

Treating chronic AF using existing surgical and catheter approaches often does not assure complete isolation or interruption of reentrant conduction pathways, and as well, can produce limited long term outcomes.  As described in the article, the use of nContact's guided coagulation system which produces long, linear lesions epicardially on a beating heart that may be connected into a complete, comprehensive, bi-atrial pattern based on the cut and sew Maze pattern, and can yield meaningful long term results.

The article discusses the importance of improving procedural effectiveness in treating AF by utilizing a comprehensive, bi-atrial lesion pattern and confirming conduction block.  The ability to perform epicardial ablation on a beating heart enables the evaluation of conduction block during lesion creation.

Prof. Dr. Borut Gersak, MD, PhD, Chief of Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slovenia, stated, "The confirmation of exit block at 15mA improves procedural effectiveness in treating AF.  Performing epicardial ablation on a beating heart avoids cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic cross clamping associated with traditional procedures such as the cut and sew Maze, and allows for confirmation of conduction block."  Since the heart remains electrically functional during the procedure, metrics may be evaluated intra-operatively to allow creation of additional lesions when block testing identifies a gap.

The article concludes that patients in whom exit block was confirmed at 15mA were statistically more likely to have successful clinical outcomes.  Results indicate that at 12 months, 87% of patients with exit block confirmed were in sinus rhythm compared with 57% patients in which exit block was not tested.  In addition, the creation of a comprehensive bi-atrial lesion pattern resulted in an increase in left ventricular ejection fraction and a reduction in left atrial size.

Prof. Gersak went on to say, "The conclusion of the surgical work was a complete, comprehensive lesion pattern with confirmation from intra-operative diagnostics to predict success.  In order to drive cardiology referrals and appeal to patients, access needs to avoid chest incisions characteristic of traditional surgical approaches.  The future of AF treatment must combine epicardial ablation elements with electrophysiologist diagnostic and ablation technologies.  Only converging the best practices from surgeons and EPs will provide a simpler, faster, safer, and more effective procedure.  This surgical experience and enabling technology have provided the basis for development of the Convergent Procedure; closed chest epicardial ablation combined with endocardial catheter ablation in a single procedure.  The procedure does not require chest incisions or ports, lung deflation or heart dissections, and incorporates EP mapping and diagnostic endpoints to determine procedure completion."

Disclaimer

It is important to note that AF is a complex, multi-variable condition.  Individual patient results may well vary from the literature, including those reported here.  A detailed discussion between the patient and physician is essential to optimize both expectations and clinical results.

About nContact, Inc.

nContact is a medical device company dedicated to transforming the underserved arrhythmia market through the advancement of less invasive, more efficacious ablation alternatives for cardiac arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation (AF).  nContact is expanding treatment options by integrating epicardial ablation into the existing electrophysiologist technology platform.  Among its advances is a unique, interdisciplinary investigational procedure that combines epicardial and endocardial ablation techniques, while offering direct access to the heart via a completely closed-chest, SUB-thoracic TotaL Endoscopic (SUBTLE) approach.

nContact's lead technology, the Numeris® Coagulation System with VisiTrax®, is indicated for endoscopic coagulation of cardiac tissue in the United States.  nContact has initiated IDE clinical studies for the treatment of AF in both open and closed chest procedures.  The Numeris® Coagulation System with VisiTrax® has CE Mark approval in Europe for the coagulation of cardiac tissue for the treatment of AF and atrial flutter.  nContact was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Morrisville, N.C.

http://www.ncontactinc.com

FOR INTERNATIONAL RELEASE ONLY

   
    Media Contacts
    Edgar Rey                             Kimberly Muscara
    nContact, Inc                         The Ruth Group
    T +1-(404)-285-0466                   T +1-(646)-536-7011
    erey@ncontactinc.com                  kmuscara@theruthgroup.com

Modal title

Contact PR Newswire

  • +44 (0)20 7454 5110
    from 8 AM - 5:30 PM GMT
  • General Enquiries
  • Media Enquiries
  • Partnerships

Products

  • Content Distribution
  • Multimedia Services
  • Disclosure Services
  • Cision Communications Cloud®

About

  • About PR Newswire
  • About Cision
  • Partnering Opportunities
  • Careers
  • Accessibility Statement
  • APAC
  • APAC - Simplified Chinese
  • APAC - Traditional Chinese
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Czech
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Israel
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Mexico
  • Middle East
  • Middle East - Arabic
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Russia
  • Slovakia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • United States
  • Vietnam

My Services

  • All News Releases
  • Customer Portal
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
  • Data Privacy

Do not sell or share my personal information:

  • Submit via Privacy@cision.com 
  • Call Privacy toll-free: 877-297-8921

Contact PR Newswire

Products

About

My Services
  • All News Releases
  • Customer Portal
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Journalists
+44 (0)20 7454 5110
from 8 AM - 5:30 PM GMT
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Information Security Policy
  • Site Map
  • RSS
  • Cookie Settings
Copyright © 2025 PR Newswire Europe Limited. All Rights Reserved. A Cision company.