Study shows therapy used for abnormal heartbeats may cause brain injury
A new study revealed that a common treatment used on patients who have irregular heartbeats may cause brain injury. A press release on the subject, posted to Medical Press, says that catheter ablation may result in the formation of brain lesions when it’s performed on the left side of the heart. The research, which was […]
A new study revealed that a common treatment used on patients who have irregular heartbeats may cause brain injury.
A press release on the subject, posted to Medical Press, says that catheter ablation may result in the formation of brain lesions when it’s performed on the left side of the heart. The research, which was conducted at UC San Francisco, shows evidence that the lesions may not be benign.
“In a small study of patients undergoing catheter ablation for common abnormal heartbeats from the lower chamber of the heart (premature ventricular contractions (PVCs)), researchers found a significantly higher rate of seemingly asymptomatic brain injury due to embolism among the patients whose therapy occurred on the left ventricle of the heart, which supplies blood to the brain, compared to patients whose therapy was conducted on the right ventricle, which pumps blood to the lungs,” the press release reads.
The researchers recommend studying the topic further in order to understand the lesions and how to avoid their occurrence.
Other information determined during the research concluded that PVCs (premature ventricular contraction) are a predictor of heart failure and mortality.
“Further, such early beats occurring continuously for more than 30 seconds is a potentially serious cardiac condition called ventricular tachycardia (VT),” the press release reads. “Given growing recognition of all these phenomena, catheter ablation for PVCs and VT is mainstream and becoming even more common, with well more than 235,000 such procedures performed annually. It is also increasingly used for patients with heart failure due to weak heart muscle that may improve after frequent PVCs are eradicated.”
Data from previous left heart-based procedures has shown that brain injury thought to be due to embolism rarely occurs. In the past, it’s been said brain injury was due to risks involved with common heart rhythm disturbance.
In the study, left ventricular (LV) ablation was performed in 12 patients compared to a control group of six patients who underwent right ventricular (RV) ablation.
An MRI was performed about a week after the procedure. Overall, seven of the 12 patients who underwent ablation on the left side of the heart experienced 16 brain embolism overall and seven of those patients developed a brain lesion.
Their study was published online Jan. 24, 2017, in the American Heart Association Journal Circulation.
