Recent Findings

Preventing Atrial Fibrillation

ICR Director José Jalife MD, has spent 35 years studying cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).

Most of Dr. Jalife's work has taken place in the lab, determining precisely what happens on a molecular, cellular and electrical level when an animal's heart goes awry.

Now, with the help of cardiac surgeon Gregory Fink MD, and members of University Hosptial's Cardiology Division, Dr. Jalife hopes to duplicate his laboratory findings in the hospital. Specifically, Dr. Jalife is interested in the mechanics of atrial fibrillation, a quivering of the heart's two atria which affects 2.5 million Americans and is the major cause of stroke.

Dr. Jalife discovered that atrial fibrillation in animal hearts is caused by an electrical abnormality in the left atrium which leads to a quivering of the right atrium. Now the question: does this happen in people, too?

For the study, Dr. Fink will implant temporary electrodes on the left and right atria of participating cardiopulmonary bypass patients who are prone to atrial fibrillation. Dr. Jalife and his team will monitor the patients after surgery with electrocardiograms. (Surgeons already implant electrodes on their bypass patients right atria, so the study requires only one additional electrode.)

This pilot study may lead us to more detailed clinical research on the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation, Dr. Jalife says. The goal is to determine when atrial fibrillation occurs and, ultimately, to prevent it from occurring.