St. Jude atrial fibrillation trial meets goals

ATLANTA, March 15 (Reuters) - A catheter-based procedure to treat a common and potentially serious heart rhythm disorder worked better than medicine, even in patients whose disease was more advanced, researchers said on Monday.

In a pilot study of an experimental St Jude Medical Inc (STJ.N) system of 60 patients with advanced atrial fibrillation, researchers found that ablation -- a procedure which involves destroying problem-causing heart tissue -- worked better than conventional anti-arrhythmic drugs.

Patients in both groups tended to have other medical problems, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or coronary artery disease,

Dr. Douglas Packer of the Mayo Clinic and lead investigator of the study, dubbed CABANA, said this small trial lays the foundation for a larger one. Packer presented the St Jude-sponsored study at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in Atlanta. (Reporting by Debra Sherman and Bill Berkrot, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)