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The breaking news in this our 103rd issue is the finding that acupuncture is highly effective in maintaining normal sinus rhythm after electrical cardioversion. A group of Italian researchers compared post-cardioversion effectiveness of amiodarone, acupuncture and sham-acupuncture in a group of lone afibbers with persistent AF. They found amiodarone and acupuncture about equally effective in maintaining NSR and both were twice as effective as sham-acupuncture, and above 50% more effective than no treatment. It seems to me that if acupuncture is effective in preventing recurrence after cardioversion of persistent afib, there is no reason why it would not also be effective in helping to extend the time interval between paroxysmal episodes. It certainly would seem worth a try, especially now that the exact location of the points to be stimulated has been published. As a matter of interest two fellow afibbers previously reported good results with acupuncture. Click below to read about their experience:
Also in this issue we report that a group of electrophysiologists from the Royal Melbourne Hospital found that the incidence of major complications associated with pulmonary vein isolation
procedures is less than 1% among lone afibbers. Some other topics covered in this issue – low magnesium levels are closely related to the risk of sudden cardiac death, ranolazine may be
an effective pill-in-the-pocket approach for heart disease patients who cannot use flecainide or propafenone, right atrial flutter ablation may unmask atrial fibrillation, and combining
warfarin with antiplatelet agents can increase bleeding risk by up to 300%.
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