Heart specialists at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics are the first in Iowa to use a new freezing technique to correct abnormal heartbeats.
Arin Wiebers is a University of Iowa student who has lived with a heart condition since she was very young. Arin was taking heart medications to control an irregular heartbeat, until a new procedure called cryoablation changed her life.
Since she can remember, Arin has hoped for a cure to her heart condition. A birth defect has caused an abnormal rhythm in Arin's heart since the fifth grade. Ian Law, M.D., a cardiologist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, recently told Arin about a new technique called cryoablation that could cure her condition. It uses sub-zero temperatures to destroy cells that cause abnormal heartbeats. For Arin, it meant the end of her life-long heart problems.
"I never knew what it was like when you get nervous or when you get scared or you run across campus or whatever. Your heart pounds, and mine never did. And so when I got done with this i had a heart that pounds, which was a new, exciting sensation (laughing)," said Arin.
Available at only a handful of medical centers, cryoablation allows cardiologists to test the planned treatment site first. The catheter temperature is then dropped to minus-75 degrees celsius. The freezing technique destroys only the abnormal heart cells. law considers Arin cured.
"For her, it's changed her life. She's able to - now that she's off of the medication - walk across campus within a week after having the procedure done. She didn't even realize what it was like to have a normal heart rate," said Law.
University of Iowa heart care specialists also use cryoablation to treat pediatric patients with irregular heart beats - a problem that affects one out of every one-thousand children.
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