U study shows MRI-based method holds promise for predicting treatment outcomes in patients with AF.

University of Utah researchers have found that delayed-enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (DE-MRI) holds promise for predicting treatment outcomes and measuring disease progression for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), a little known heart rhythm disorder that affects more than 3.5 million Americans and causes more than 66,000 deaths a year. Their latest study on a novel application of this technology for AF appears in the April 7 issue of the journal Circulation (see also University of Utah Health Sciences).

AF is a misfiring of the electrical signals of the heart, which causes rapid and/or irregular heartbeats and is associated with fibrosis (scar tissue) …