Physical mechanisms of UV-laser ablation of polyimide (Kapton H) are discussed for different laser pulse duration from long (p,s) to ultra-short (ps) laser pulses. Theoretical analysis of experimental data suggests that with long laser pulses the mechanism appears to be thermal. The activation energies for ablation are about 1.5 eV, and typical temperatures lie in the range 1400-1800 K. With ns...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The findings of the 2006 Spanish Catheter Ablation Registry compiled by the Spanish Society of Cardiology Working Group on Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias are presented. METHODS As in previous years, data were collected in two ways: retrospectively using a standardized questionnaire sent to electrophysiology laboratories by the Working Group on Electrophysiology ...

The role of nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) in cardiovascular system regulation is controversial. On the other hand, the problem of hypertension in diabetic animals is the subject of many research programs. The aim of present study was to determine whether inactivation of NTS could affect blood pressure and heart rate in diabetic rats. To this end, stereptozotocin induced diabetic rats were an...

Catheter ablation procedures are performed in 5-10% of patients suffering from atrial fibrillation (AF). 3 While the main reason for undertaking AF ablation is because the patient is suffering from symptomatic AF, those who undergo AF ablation are younger and ‘generally healthier’ than patients who do not undergo ablation treatment, 6 as reflected by lower stroke risk scores, but also driven by...

OBJECTIVE To report rates of amenorrhea and treatment failure after global endometrial ablation and to estimate the association between patient factors and these outcomes by developing and validating prediction models. METHODS From January 1998 through December 2005, 816 women underwent global endometrial ablation with either a thermal balloon ablation or radio frequency ablation device; 455 ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Nodular goiter is one of the most common benign lesions in thyroid nodule. The main treatment of the disease is still the traditional surgical resection, however there are many problems such as general anesthesia, surgical scar, postoperative thyroid or parathyroid function abnormalities, and high nodules recurrence rate in residual gland. The purpose of this study was to...

No doubt surgical research has paved the way to curative treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Long before the idea of catheter ablation was born, accessory atrioventricular pathways were interrupted by surgical knives, ventricular tachycardia was successfully treated by endocardial resection or scar circumcision, and even the first successful approaches to cure atrioventricular nodal re-entrant ta...

Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is now an important therapeutic modality for patients with AF. There is considerable evidence available from several prospective randomized trials demonstrating that catheter ablation of AF is superior to antiarrhythmic drug therapy in controlling AF and that AF ablation improves quality of life substantially. This is especially true for patients wi...