According to information found in a new study published on April 3 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, metabolic syndrome has been linked to a higher risk of patients suffering from a recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after they have a catheter ablation.

This research was conducted by Dr. Sanghamitra Mohanty from University of Texas at Austin and her colleagues, who collected data from 1,496 AF patients who’d had a catheter ablation, 485 of whom also had metabolic syndrome.

After the catheter ablation treatment, both of the groups in the study had persistent AF. Of those patients, 14.4 percent of them had metabolic syndrome to the 12.1 percent of the patients without it. These patients had a cardioversion done as a means of achieving sinus rhythm. However, after 21 months passed the AF came back in 39 percent of the group that had metabolic syndrome. When the researchers looked deeper, they realized that there was a higher failure rate that only occurred in the patients that have nonparoxysmal AF.

“It is reasonable to state with prudence that the mechanism linking metabolic syndrome to a higher recurrence rate in nonparoxysmal AF is mediated via inflammation,” the researchers note. “Why inflammatory markers failed to predict outcomes in patients with paroxysmal AF is not known. But it can be speculated that differential expression of biomarkers due to a lower frequency of associated comorbidities could have resulted in such failure.”

AF is treated with various medications in addition to or in lieu of catheter ablation. One of those medications is Multaq. These days, it seems that Multaq may eventually get recalled once other drugs start to show themselves as safer and more effective. This opinion stems from the fact that Multaq has been linked to liver failure and worsening of the heart condition.

If you or a loved one has suffered from liver failure or a worsening heart condition after being treated with Multaq, contact the attorney’s at Greg Jones today for a free consultation. I am experienced at fighting Multaq lawsuits and may be able to help you recover money for your injuries.