HARRISBURG, Pa. – UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute (HVI) researchers today announced that the first patient was treated in a clinical trial at UPMC Pinnacle Harrisburg to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a new system for the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). The ADVENT Trial is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration Investigational Device Exemption pivotal trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of its Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA) system for the treatment of AF.

AF is a heart rhythm disorder that affects nearly 6 million Americans and makes them five times more likely to have a stroke than individuals with a regular heartbeat. Catheter ablation is emerging as one of the preferred treatment options for symptomatic paroxysmal AF.

Ablation is a non-surgical procedure used to correct certain heart rhythm abnormalities such as AF. During an ablation procedure, a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is guided to the interior of the heart from the patient's groin. Traditionally, the tip of an ablation catheter generates extreme temperatures—hot or cold—to eliminate the targeted heart tissue associated with irregular heartbeats. The PFA system, however, relies on non-thermal electric fields that are tissue selective. That is, PFA selectively ablates heart tissue without affecting other critical surrounding structures such as the esophagus or major nerves—an unfortunate potential downside of standard thermal ablation procedures. Based on European clinical trials, these electric fields have proven very effective in durably "silencing" abnormal heart signals, while reducing the risk of damage to other nearby tissues.

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CREDIT ALL: UPMC
CAPTIONS:
Top: Chimnay P. Patel, M.D., medical director, electrophysiology, UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute.
Middle: Michael Link, M.D., cardiac electrophysiologist, UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute.
Bottom: Mubashir Mumtaz, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.C.C., chief of cardiothoracic surgery and surgical director of structural heart, UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute.
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