Last month’s Third Annual Western Atrial Fibrillation Symposium was a resounding success. More than 300 cardiologists, physicians and others attended this world-class conference, which was sponsored by the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology and hosted by the Comprehensive Arrhythmia Research & Management Center (CARMA).

The symposium’s faculty featured physicians from renowned medical centers in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Their presentations covered new research and developments regarding the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation. Some of the notable presenters and their topics included:

• Walid Saliba, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic, Cardiovascular Medicine, who spoke about the Atrial Fibrillation Information System (AFIS), which is the first comprehensive software application to gather and present all associated clinical information for patient management in one place (I’ll write more about this in next month’s blog).

• Melvin Scheinman, MD, University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, who examined the latest research on various gene mutations as a possible cause of AF and its treatment implications.

• John P. DiMarco, MD, PhD, University of Virginia, Cardiovascular Medicine, whose presentation focused on new developments in stroke prevention and risk assessment, including the controversy relating to the duration of AD that requires anticoagulation.

• Rob S. MacLeod, PhD, University of Utah, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, who discussed the role of collaborative development of imaging software in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.

I also presented data regarding a novel method of staging atrial fibrillation patients based on the percentage of fibrotic tissue in the left atrium detected using delayed-enhancement MRI techniques.

More information about these presentations will be featured in the April issue of EP Lab Digest. It’s also not too early to register (http://www.westernatrialfibrillation.com/) for next year’s symposium, which will be held at the Park City Marriott in Park City, UT, February 25-26, 2011.

Nassir F. Marrouche, MD is the Executive Director of the Comprehensive Arrhythmia Research & Management Center, Director of Electrophysiology Laboratories, and Director of the Atrial Fibrillation Program at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology.