Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in a subset of patients with concomitant hypertension

AIM:To study patients with atrial fibrillation and hypertension who had successful catheter ablation for changes in blood pressure 1 year later.METHODS:A retrospective study was performed on patients who had catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation(AF) and hypertension(HTN) which included local autonomic ganglionated plexi denervation and pulmonary veins isolation.Of the records of 119 patients,followup data was found in order to determine the presence of sinus rhythm and data on systolic(SBP) and diastolic blood pressure at 2 wk,3 mo,6 mo and 1 year after the ablation procedure.Transthoracic echocardiograms were taken at the time of the catheter procedure to determine left atrial dimensions(LADs) and left ventricular size.RESULTS:There was no significant difference in the preablation mean blood pressures between the two groups(P = 0.08).After 1 year 33 of the 60 with AF and HTN were in sinus rhythm,of whom 12 had normal LADs,≤ 4 cm Group 1,and 21 had enlarged left atria(LADs > 4 cm,Group 2).For Group 1,at 1 year of follow up,there was a significant difference in the SBP(119.2 ± 13 mm Hg) compared to pre-ablation(142.6 ± 13.7 mm Hg,P = 0.001).For Group 2,there was no significant difference in the SBP,pre-ablation(130.3 ± 17.5 mm Hg) and at 1 year of follow up(130.4 ± 13.4 mm Hg,P = 0.75).All patients were on similar anti-hypertensive medications.There was a trend for a greater left ventricular size in Group 2 compared to Group 1.CONCLUSION:We suggest that Group 1 had HTN due to sympathetic hyperactivity,neurogenic HTN;whereas HTN in Group 2 was based on arterial vasoconstriction.

Patient prompting of their physician resulted in increased colon cancer screening referrals

AIM:To determine whether a communication instru-ment provided to patients prior to their primary carephysician(PCP)visit initiates a conversation with theirPCP about colorectal cancer screening(CRC-S),impact-ing screening referral rates in fully insured and underin-sured patients.METHODS:A prospective randomized control studywas performed at a single academic center outpatient internal medicine(IRMC,underinsured)and fam-ily medicine(FMRC,insured)resident clinics prior to scheduled visits.In the intervention group,a pamphlet about the benefit of CRC-S and a reminder card were given to patients before the scheduled visit for prompt-ing of CRC-S referral by their PCP.The main outcome measured was frequency of CRC-S referral in each clinic after intervention.RESULTS:In the IRMC,148 patients participated,a control group of 72 patients(40F and 32M)and 76 patients(48F and 28M)in the intervention group.Re-ferrals for CRC-S occurred in 45/72(63%)of control vs 70/76(92%)in the intervention group(P≤0.001).In the FMRC,126 patients participated,66(39F:27M)con-trol and 60(33F:27M)in the intervention group.CRC-S referrals occurred in 47/66(71%)of controls vs 56/60(98%)in the intervention group(P≤0.001).CONCLUSION:Patient initiated physician prompting produced a significant referral increase for CRC-S in un-derinsured and insured patient populations.Additional investigation aimed at increasing CRC-S acceptance is warranted.