2015 Atrial Fibrillation Patient Conference: Avoiding Afib Strokes: Mintu Turakhia, MD, FHRS

2015 Get in Rhythm. Stay in Rhythm.™ Atrial Fibrillation Patient Conference

In his talk about Avoiding Afib Strokes at the 2015 Get in Rhythm. Stay in Rhythm.™ Atrial Fibrillation Patient Conference, Dr. Mintu Turakhia of Stanford University discussed how our thinking about afib and stroke, and when to treat, has changed over the last couple of years.

Dr. Turakhia covered the Top Ten Things to Know about Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke: [1:33]

1. Determining the risk of stroke in AF, including the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc risk scoring tools [1:40]
2. How precise are stroke risk scores for people with AF [3:00]
3. Who should get stroke prevention therapy? [9:26]
4. What medicines can reduce the risk of stroke in AF? [11:46]
5. What about aspirin? Isn’t it safer? [16:58]
6. Is stroke risk affected by choosing rate control vs. rhythm control? [20:12]
7. Will ablation lower stroke risk? [21:53]
8. Ways to reduce risk of stroke without medication [22:49]
a. Transcatheter left atrial occlusion [22:55]
b. Three options for LAA exclusion [23:09]
c. Early history of LA appendage closure [23:26]
d. Watchman device [23:35]
e. PROTECT-AF trial [25:11]
f. Long-term data [26:00]
g. Lariat device (Sentreheart) [26:16]
h. Approval status [27:19]
9. Why do patients with appendage occlusion still have strokes? [27:22]
10. What the future holds [28:49]

Video watching time is approximately 37 minutes.

Dr. Turakhia is a cardiac electrophysiologist, outcomes researcher, and Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University. He is Chief of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System and is an Associate Investigator at the Center for Innovation to Implementation.

In his clinical role, Dr. Turakhia performs complex catheter ablation (primarily for AF), device implantation, and left atrial appendage occlusion. Dr. Turakhia has an active clinical research program, with funding from AHA, VA, NIH, the medical device industry, and foundations. His research program aims to improve the treatment of heart rhythm disorders, with an emphasis on atrial fibrillation, by evaluating quality and variation of care, comparative and cost-effectiveness of therapies, and predicting outcomes such as stroke.

Dr. Turakhia has extensive expertise in using large administrative and claims databases for this work. His other research interests include technology assessment of new device based therapies and the impact of changing health policy and reform on the delivery of arrhythmia care. Dr. Turakhia has over 70 publications and is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and Heart Rhythm Society.