Abstract
An estimated 4 million Americans currently have atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia. The annual growth rate of AF is approximately 9.2% and advanced statistical analyses project that the prevalence of AF will be 12.1 million in the United States by 2030. The current therapeutic options to treat AF put certain patient groups at a high risk for a serious bleeding event, stroke or thromboembolism, myocardial infarction, and death. The most effective treatment for AF—catheter ablation—has been widely reported to require repeat operations and only leaves 59.4% of patients AF-free after five years. A majority of the reported complications and increased risks for catheter ablation occur because the procedure is invasive. Thus, there is a need for a novel, non-invasive therapeutic option to treat AF that can potentially expand the treatable patient population, increase patient safety, and improve clinical outcomes. CyberHeart Inc. has been exploring the efficacy and potential of cardiac radiosurgery as an option to treat heart conditions such as AF. With its proprietary CardioPlanTM software, the CyberHeart System utilizes the Cyberknife stereotactic radiosurgery platform to non-invasively ablate the heart. Early studies have displayed that the CyberHeart System is highly accurate at delivering radiation to cardiac targets and effective at minimizing radiation exposure to healthy tissue that is in close proximity to the targeted anatomic region. The focus of this review is to present the current standard of treatment for AF, identify the specific patient population that is at a high risk for the current treatment modalities, and address the potential for the CyberHeart Stereotactic Radiosurgery System to noninvasively ablate cardiac tissue and return sinus rhythm to patients with AF.
Highlights
An estimated 4 million Americans currently have atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia [1] [2]
Twenty-percent of all strokes are secondary to AF and it has been noted that strokes that result from AF are more disabling and have greater clinical significance than other forms of strokes [6]
The focus of this review is to present the current standard of treatment for AF, identify the specific patient population that is at a high risk for the current treatment modalities, and address the potential for the CyberHeart Stereotactic Radiosurgery System to noninvasively ablate cardiac tissue and the return of sinus rhythm to patients with AF
Summary
An estimated 4 million Americans currently have atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia [1] [2]. Cost of hospitalization for patients with AF is approximately 3 times more than those without, resulting in an incremental cost for AF that ranges from 6 to 26 billion USD annually [1] [4]. The length of hospitalizations for patients with AF has been observed to be longer than the recorded times for other patients, and there are significant concerns with the decrease in quality of life that current treatment strategies mandate [5]. The current therapeutic options to treat AF put certain patient groups at a high risk for a serious bleeding event, stroke or thromboembolism, myocardial infarction, and death. This results in a considerable number of patients with AF that are unable to be treated.
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