Background: In 2010 a retrospective audit was undertaken to assess the viability of using PROMs in patients with symptomatic cardiac arrhythmias having undergone percutaneous arrhythmia ablation. A response rate of 74 % was achieved, with finding suggesting that arrhythmia patients reported a significant impact on their work, social and family life.
Aims: To conduct a qualitative cross sectional survey to understand patients' perspectives of how cardiac arrhythmias affect their daily lives, as part of a program to develop a Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM).
Method: Twenty five patients aged 18 or over, diagnosed with a variety of symptomatic cardiac arrhythmias referred for a cardiac ablation procedure took part in cognitive interviews. These aimed to inform the development of a patient reported outcome measure and to determine factors important to this patient group. Common themes were identified using content analysis.
Results: Participants reported that symptoms of their arrhythmia caused them considerable problems and impacted adversely on their quality of life in many ways. This extended through daily routine, work and social activities and also to friends and family, with fear and anxiety being significant factors for most responders. Patients felt their illness was poorly understood, even by health professionals, and often reported that they felt isolated, lacking support and information.
Conclusion: Symptomatic cardiac arrhythmias are a source of debilitating and life limiting symptoms, having a negative impact on quality of life. Symptoms and related complications are relevant across different arrhythmia substrates and patient groups.
Trial Registration: The study is registered on the Clinical Trials website, Identifier NCT01672528.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0282-9 | DOI Listing |
Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging
January 2025
Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Barcelona, Spain.
Background: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is essential for diagnosing cardiomyopathy, serving as the gold standard for assessing heart chamber volumes and tissue characterization. Hemodynamic forces (HDF) analysis, a novel approach using standard cine CMR images, estimates energy exchange between the left ventricular (LV) wall and blood. While prior research has focused on peak or mean longitudinal HDF values, this study aims to investigate whether unsupervised clustering of HDF curves can identify clinically significant patterns and stratify cardiovascular risk in non-ischemic LV cardiomyopathy (NILVC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedicine (Baltimore)
January 2025
Department of Anesthesiology, Yanbian University Hospital, Yanji, Jilin, P.R. China.
Rationale: Patients with atrial fibrillation and a large goiter have high perioperative risks and often cannot tolerate general anesthesia, making it necessary for us to explore new safe and effective anesthesia methods.
Patient Concerns: The patient presented with atrial fibrillation accompanied by rapid ventricular rate, a thrombus attached to the left atrial appendage, and a massive thyroid goiter compressing the airway.
Diagnosis: After the left humerus fracture surgery, the patient's internal fixation loosened and fractured, accompanied by infection, formation of sinus tracts, and suppuration.
Chaos
January 2025
School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.
Arrhythmia of the heart is a dangerous and potentially fatal condition. The current widely used treatment is the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), but it is invasive and affects the patient's quality of life. The sonogenetic mechanism proposed here focuses ultrasound on a cardiac tissue, controls endogenous stretch-activated Piezo1 ion channels on the focal region's cardiomyocyte sarcolemma, and restores normal heart rhythm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStrahlenther Onkol
January 2025
TUM School of Medicine and Health, Department of Radiation Oncology, Technische Universität München (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, Munich, Germany.
Purpose: Increasing life expectancy and advances in cancer treatment will lead to more patients needing both radiation therapy (RT) and cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs). CIEDs, including pacemakers and defibrillators, are essential for managing cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure. Telemetric monitoring of CIEDs checks battery status, lead function, settings, and diagnostic data, thereby identifying software deviations or damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJMIR Form Res
January 2025
Limburg Clinical Research Center/Mobile Health Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium.
Background: Consumer-oriented wearable devices (CWDs) such as smartphones and smartwatches have gained prominence for their ability to detect atrial fibrillation (AF) through proprietary algorithms using electrocardiography or photoplethysmography (PPG)-based digital recordings. Despite numerous individual validation studies, a direct comparison of interdevice performance is lacking.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the ability of CWDs to distinguish between sinus rhythm and AF.
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