Promising New Drug for Arrhythmias -(this is not spam)

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Posted by Laura in Oregon on April 10, 2004 at 01:15:31:

I found this in the paper today and couldn't help but wonder.. maybe I should put off the ablation. Among other things, my cardio and I will be discussing this article next week at my pre-ablation consultation. (I go thru this every day; chicken out - not chicken out... )

"Scientists have discovered the molecular cause of a lethal type of irregular heartbeat and a drug that seems able to prevent it, a find that might one day save hundreds of thousands of lives.
So far, the experimental drug has been studied only in mice, but the Columbia University researchers hope to begin human testing next year.
Regardless of how that first attempt goes, the discovery is important because it provides a new target to treat not just irregular heartbeat but the huge problem of congestive heart failure, too.
'That's the exciting part about this work,' said Dr. David Lathrop, who heads research into irregular heartbeat at the National Institutes of Health. 'It's definitely a step forward.'
At issue are ventricular arrhythmias, racing irregular beats of the heart's lower chambers. If it worsens, the heart quits beating and instead quivers, a condition called ventricular fibrillation that can kill within minutes. It claims about 340,000 U.S. lives annually.
Heart failure, in which the heart muscle becomes progressively too weak to pump blood, is a major cause of ventricular arrhythmias. Heart failure afflicts about 4.6 million Americans and by itself is a relentless killer, but half of patients suffer ventricular arrhythmias, too.
Also, some patients inherit a form of exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmia.
In both types, sufferers have a leak in a tiny channel that regulates calcium levels inside their heart cells - and that leak triggers the deadly irregular heartbeat, said Dr. Andrew Marks, director of Columbia's Center for Molecular Cardiology.
The experimental drug, code named JTV519, can plug the leak and prevent the irregular heartbeat, he reported in Thursday's edition of the journal Science.
Marks bred mice to have the same leaky defect and gave them half the drug. Stressing them with exercise pushed all of the untreated mice into ventricular arrhythmias, and 83 percent died. But none of the mice given the drug could be stressed into the irregular heartbeat.
'There has to be some event at the molecular level that triggers the arrhythmia. We think we've discovered what that event is and how to prevent it,' Marks said.
A bonus: The leak seems to worsen heart failure, too, so plugging it holds the promise to treat the overarching disease as well. In additional animal studies not yet published, Marks has found that fixing the leak improves overall heart function.
Today's heart-failure medications typically treat the symptoms, not the disease's cause, Marks said. Many patients eventually need an implanted heart pump or a heart transplant, difficult and expensive options." -END

My questions: 1). Do they have a test to know whether the cause of a person's arrhythmia is caused from leaking calcium whatevers 2). Isn't an ablation a form of treating the symptom? 3). What does this new drug do that a calcium channel blocker drug does not do?

The calcium channel blocker drug worked well for my PVCs, but gave me a horrific headache, so I had to stop taking it. After it wore off, I had more PVCs and still do, well over a month later. I'm thinking a blood test might show excess calcium from this leaking problem, eh? Guess I'll find out. Right now I'm gonna go look up the Science journal on-line and see what's there.

Sigh... care to comment anyone?
Thanks!
Hugs to all,
Laura

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