Science / Medicine : Electrical Cure for Heart Ailment

A quick burst of radio-frequency electricity can cure the heart of racing rhythms that require thousands of Americans to undergo surgery or take drugs for life, an Oklahoma researcher said last week at a science writers’ symposium of the American Heart Assn.

“It’s a cure--it completely eliminates the problem,” said Warren Jackman of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. The procedure costs about $15,000, or one-third as much as surgery, and lets patients get back to work within a day or two, Jackman said.

People who suffer from these abnormal rhythms have an electrical short-circuit in their hearts that can, without warning, shoot their heart rates up from a normal 80 or 90 beats per minute to 180 or 190, Jackman said. These episodes occur an average of several times a month, he added.