HAYWIRE Electrophysiologists use technology to eliminate abnormal heart rhythms
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Driving home from work one day last fall, Clarence Rodefeld’s heart started beating out of control and he blacked out. He had a head-on collision, totaled his truck and broke three ribs. He was lucky it wasn’t worse.
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Rodefeld knew what was happening. For 12 years, he suffered from a dangerous heart condition called atrial fibrillation. “It’s scary. You don’t know if you’re about to have a heart attack. You can feel your heart pounding out of your chest, and you know it’s critical. It can kill you,” Rodefeld said. Approximately 2.2 million Americans live with atrial fibrillation, a condition that causes the heart to beat erratically, potentially causing heart attack or stroke.
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“When people have atrial fibrillation, their hearts have regular bouts of erratic, fast beating,” said Dr. Miguel Valderrabano, director, division of cardiac electrophysiology at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center. “They often have an uncomfortable awareness of their heartbeat. Sometimes they have chest pain. They get weak. They can show up with no symptoms at all or with more extreme complications such as stroke or heart failure.” “It feels like you’re not in this world,” said Rodefeld, a 61-year-old warehouse manager. “It’s like you’re not a normal
human being. It zaps all the energy out of you.” “The medical quandary around atrial fibrillation is its erratic behavior, which makes it challenging to treat,” said Dr. Nadim Nasir Jr., cardiologist and electrophysiologist at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center. “Tiny electrical impulses continually run through a healthy person’s heart, giving it the impetus to beat and pump lifesustaining blood through the body. When these electrical impulses go haywire, atrial fibrillation occurs.”
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