According to a press release, AtriAN Medicals clinical data from the Neural atrial fibrillation (AF) study was presented by Vivek Reddy (Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, USA) at this year’s renowned annual AF symposium 2022 (13—15 January, New York City, USA).
To date, the company has enrolled 19 patients in the AF multi-centre study, which uses a cardiac autonomic ablation technology for the treatment of AF. The study assessed the safety and feasibility of the company’s pulsed-field ablation (PFA) technology for the selective ablation of cardiac autonomic neuronal tissue. The treatment targeted specific locations on the exterior surface of the heart—delivering very short and precise electric fields, the device eliminates hyperactive neuronal cells at these locations. This leads to a reduction in the heart’s overall sensitivity to AF.
The first procedure was performed on patients undergoing concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) at Tbilisi Heart & Vascular Clinic (Georgia), and Na Homolce Hospital (Prague, Czech Republic).
“The AtriAN system is an exciting development, opening up the possibility of addressing the autonomic origin of atrial fibrillation, which has largely been ignored by existing ablation technologies,” said Tamaz Shaburishvili, head of the Tbilisi Heart & Vascular Clinic.
The AtriAN system includes catheters designed for use within the pericardial space and a generator for providing the low energy pulsed electric fields, that are delivered via the catheters, directly into the epicardial neuronal tissues.
“The field of selective cardio-neuro ablation offers great promise among the treatment options for atrial fibrillation and it is exciting to see the AtriAN system now being assessed clinically,” said Joris de Groot, a cardiologist at Amsterdam UMC. “Arrhythmia recurrence is a widespread problem with current ablation technologies – the AtriAN selective autonomic ablation has the potential to resolve this issue.”
