A-Fib Ablation can also cause significant weakening of the heart muscle. Using a harmless cold virus, the researchers delivered a gene that helps to control electrical activity within the heart into five pigs, the non-primate animal with hearts most like those of humans.

The study suggests that gene therapy could one day reduce the need for antiarrhythmia drugs or surgery in people who are prone to unstable heart rhythms, and also might be used to treat defects in other areas of the heart, note Italian physicians in an editorial accompanying the study. Left untreated, atrial fibrillation can lead to a heart attack or can cause blood to pool in the heart and clot, which could lead to a stroke.

Alternatively, implantable or external defibrillators -- machines that deliver a powerful shock to the heart -- can force a heart in afib back into a normal rhythm, or the patient can be treated with a procedure known as ablation, in which a portion of the pacemaker containing abnormal tissue is destroyed using either energy from radiowaves, or surgery.

• The researchers chose the gene because it blocks the activity of an enzyme that speeds up heart rate when the organ is under stress.
• Takeaways I cannot sleep while I wait for my heart to either normalize or burst up through my windpipe.
• I feel the slap and slam of agitated heart muscle against the chest wall and wait to find out my future.

I cannot sleep while I wait for my heart to either normalize or burst up through my windpipe.

Or maybe worse, will the gyrating heart muscle eject a blood clot, swooshing it through the arteries to my brain? I was a police sergeant and I had noticed that work was becoming a living nightmare.

My doctor diagnosed my heart problems at once following an EKG and sent me to the hospital, where I was referred to a cardiologist. My Future I had to retire early from my police job due to my heart situation.