My top three AFib sessions at #HRS2024

A short post today as I am in transit to 'Heart Rhythm Society 2024'. This is the US-based annual conference for Healthcare Professionals working and researching in the field of Arrhythmias including Atrial Fibrillation.

Last year we presented our findings from mapping the electrical health of the heart during catheter ablation in patients in the AFHF study.

This year is an opportunity to present our work on asymptomatic AFib and importantly, also learn from other researchers and teams that have been conducting research on Arrhythmia management around the World. It is always a humbling experience to witness the scale of this event and enthused to keep working harder.

Having browsed the 2024 Programme, here are the top three Presentations that I am looking forward to the most:

Pulsed Field Ablation - The Basics to the Bedside 

There are probably close to 100 talks or presentations on Pulsed Field Ablation technologies. We flagged it as one of 2024's biggest developments and as expected, it has a big footprint at the Conference. This one-hour session of three talks looks to be a little different to the others. Rather than focus on the Clinical Trials, it will focus on the physics and biology behind the technology and how it may uniquely affect heart cells whilst sparing other organs.

Acute Electrophysiological Effect of SGLT2 Inhibitors - Dapagliflozin the Action of a Class I Antiarrhythmic Drug 

Again, another niche mechanistic talk but one that I plan to attend. SGLT2 inhibitors are drugs that were originally developed for Diabetes but have demonstrated remarkable survival benefits for patients with Heart Failure and Kidney disease. These findings have been relatively recent and they have only been integrated into Guidelines in the last 24 months, but we are seeing them a lot.

Many patients with Atrial Fibrillation have heart failure or kidney disease so it is important to understand how it interacts with the arrhythmia. To my knowledge, the direct effect on AFib control hasn't been studied and so any signal that there may be benefit would be really interesting.

Mediterranean diet enriched with extra virgin olive oil reduced risk of recurrence after atrial fibrillation ablation: the PREDIMAR study

This is my wildcard presentation that I hope will live up to expectation. It is listed as a 'late-breaking clinical trial' which means all the results are sealed until the actual session on Saturday. However, the authors published the Study Design online in 2020.

Studies of dietary interventions are fraught with challenges to conduct and the difficulties in execution mean they often show a neutral finding with no actionable take-away for physicians or patients. They're often observational studies or last only for a few months.

The PREDIMAR team designed a randomised controlled trial of 720 patients that had catheter ablation procedures for AFib at 4 Spanish centres. Patients were divided into two groups- one group that was provided with a 2-year supply of extra virgin olive oil and encouraged to eat a Mediterranean diet or a second group that was to continue with their standard diet. The number of AFib recurrences and time to recurrence will be compared to see if the provision of extra virgin olive oil and the Mediterranean diet reduces the AF recurrence rate. So a really challenging study design but I look forward to the result!

I will share as many findings and new insights from #HRS2024 over the coming weeks so please do share www.bartsaf.com with any friends or groups that may be interested so they can subscribe too and get the latest information as it comes out!