Ablation is a procedure used to treat atrial fibrillation or abnormal heart rhythm. Individuals that have the surgery planned and are dealing with weight problems may improve their outcomes by shedding some pounds.
A new study finds that people that lost more than 3% of their body weight before undergoing the procedure had better odds of their heart rhythms returning to normal as opposed to those who did not lose weight.
What is Atrial Fibrillation?
Atrial fibrillation is a condition that causes the heart to beat faster and out of sequence. It can cause blood clots that lead to a stroke.
The condition is treated with a medication or procedure called catheter ablation which kills the cells that are causing the abnormality. Dr. Jeffrey Goldberger, a professor of medicine and director at the Center for Atrial Fibrillation at the University of Miami School of Medicine explains how weight loss could be a factor.
“Weight loss is a key factor in the management of atrial fibrillation for those that are overweight or obese,” he says.
“Obesity is known to be a pro-inflammatory condition. It turns out that there’s fat tissue that sits directly on the heart muscle and these fat cells can secrete all sorts of hormones that could induce inflammation. One of our hypotheses is that reduction in this fat tissue around the heart lowers inflammation and improves the outcomes,” he said.
The Study
Goldberger and his team enrolled 59 obese patients with atrial fibrillation who were scheduled for ablation therapy. 30 patients received the weight-loss drug Victoza before the study while 29 continued with their routine.
88% of the 30 weight loss patients who lost 3% of their body weight remained in a normal rhythm six months after the surgery. 81% were still in normal rhythm after a year.
This compares to just 61% of the 29 patients who did not lose weight and retained normal rhythm after six months.
Inflammation May Be to Blame
Dr. Laurence Epstein, system director of electrophysiology at Northwell Health’s Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital in Manhasset, NY, notes inflammation is likely to be at the core of the study results.
“Inflammation can lead to coronary artery disease, and we think that inflammation also plays a role in arterial fibrillation,” he said.
“When we get inside people’s hearts and record electrical activity in some people, we can see a fair amount of scarring when we don’t know why they would have any scarring, so there was some inflammation that occurred,” he went on to say.
Epstein went on to explain that, for ablation treatment to be successful in the long term, you need to target what’s causing it. Obesity often contributes to the condition so it’s vital to lose weight if you want to correct it. Not smoking, dealing with addiction, minimizing alcohol consumption, and treating sleep apnea also help.
“It’s both challenging for patients but also empowering… because they have in their hands the ability to affect what their long-term outcomes are going to be, and they can take control of that.”
