MORRISVILLE, N.C., Jan. 9, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new physician poster presentation at the Atrial Fibrillation Symposium 19th Annual International Meeting in Orlando, FL, reports long-term outcomes for the Convergent Procedure, a multidisciplinary epicardial-endocardial approach to treat patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). AF is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, recently estimated to affect 33.5 million people worldwide, with a majority of patients falling into the difficult-to-treat persistent AF population.
The physician poster presentation is summarized as follows:
Prospective Reveal XT Outcomes for the Convergent Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Procedure
January 9 & 10, 7:30 am – 6:30 pm
Poster #3013
Authors:
Borut Gersak, MD, PhD
Matevz Jan, MD, PhD
Boris Robic, MD
In this presentation from the University Medical Center Ljubljana in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 76 patients with persistent and longstanding persistent AF were evaluated through continuous loop recorders. At 36 months' follow-up, 84% of patients were in sinus rhythm and only 10% of patients required repeat ablations.
"We continue to see the positive clinical impact of the Convergent Procedure in our persistent AF patients with this 3-year data," said Professor Borut Gersak, MD, PhD, of University Medical Center Ljubljana in Ljubljana, Slovenia. "The Convergent Procedure should be a first-line treatment for persistent AF patients. Our long-term results are aligned with other recent publications in the U.S., and we see high single-procedure efficacy compared to endocardial catheter ablation."
The multidisciplinary Convergent Procedure is performed as a single procedure in the electrophysiology lab. The epicardial lesions are created first under direct endoscopic visualization by a surgeon, through a 2 cm incision in the abdomen, with no chest incisions or ports. The endocardial lesions created by an electrophysiologist help confirm lesion set completeness through specialized EP diagnostics, which also predict outcomes.
nContact is attending the 19th Annual International AF Symposium January 9 – 11, 2014, in Orlando, FL, Booth #917. For more information on nContact, please visit the website at www.ncontactinc.com.
About nContact, Inc.
nContact's mission is to transform the underserved arrhythmia market through the advancement of less invasive ablation alternatives for cardiac arrhythmias. The Company is conducting the CONVERGE IDE Clinical Trial, the first head-to-head superiority study to evaluate the Convergent Procedure to catheter ablation in persistent atrial fibrillation patients. The Company's lead technology, EPi-Sense™ Coagulation System with VisiTrax®, has CE Mark approval in Europe for the coagulation of cardiac tissue in the treatment of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. The EPi-Sense Coagulation System with VisiTrax is indicated for endoscopic coagulation of cardiac tissue in the U.S. nContact was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina, USA.