December 4, 2014 — Medi?Lynx Cardiac Monitoring LLC and MEDICALgorithmics will participate in a research project, investigating the impact of lifestyle modification on ablation outcome in atrial fibrillation (ISOLATE). The research is financed by Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Foundation. The PocketECG cardiac monitoring system will be used for collecting and analyzing the ECG data in the project.
This prospective randomized pilot study will evaluate the impact of aggressive lifestyle modification, in terms of calorie?controlled diet and supervised exercise, on outcomes of catheter ablation in overweight and obese patients with atrial fibrillation. The principal investigators are Andrea Natale, M.D. with Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Foundation and Mitra Mohanty, M.D., with The University of Texas at Austin.
The hypothesis states that weight loss and management by adoption of a strict diet and exercise regimen improves the chances of freedom from recurrence following catheter ablation.
One important aspect of the project is the role of autonomic neural imbalance in arrhythmogenesis. Weight?loss and aerobic exercise are believed to reverse the autonomic remodeling and enhance the electrical stability of the heart.
The trial will help to evaluate the impact of weight?loss and exercise on HRV during rest and physical activity in the intervention and no?intervention cohort.
The study’s eligible group is overweight or obese adult patients with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation undergoing first catheter ablation at least 3 months after the enrollment.
Supervised and monitored exercise will be conducted in St. David's Cardiac Rehabilitation for at least three months before ablation. After ablation, patients will continue an individualized home?exercise program for 1 year.
For more information: clinicaltrials.gov