I have Cardiomyopathy related A. Fib.
In January I am meeting with an EP. He has already put into writing that he thinks an ablation, at this time, would have a poor chance of success.... so this could be a short meeting!
I wonder if anyone has any ideas of questions I should be asking.
I'd ask him about the latest review from this year
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/272...
Which indicates good success for catheter ablation, although 2 x chance of recurrence.
However this paper was not so encouraging
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/259...
If your atria are not very dilated or you have paroxysmal af then it looks like catheter ablation is worthwhile, but the decision is not clear it seems as long term outcomes were not improved in the second paper above.
So in summary you need to know if your atria are small and what he/she thinks of the Barts review paper
I also have cardiomyopathy I had a cryoblation on 28th sept I have had a few bouts of AF but it has resolved its self and I do feel better still on all drugs but this will be reviewed in feb
Just to let you know that I had DCM after years of undiagnosed AF. My EP was quite clear that ablation would be difficult but as I was so symptomatic worthwhile. He said it would be a journey. I have had 4 ablations varying in time from 7 1/2 hrs to 4. After the 3rd and longer times spent in SR than AF my heart returned to normal size. Today I have been in SR for 22 mths and have diastolic heart disease which just means its not as effective as it should be but a lot better than DCM.
You need to find a very experienced clued in EP who doesn't mind taking the risk with his 'success' statistics. Good luck.
