VOA HEALTH REPORT ABOUT ATRIAL FIBRILLATION PRODUCES AN

ABNORMAL HEARTBEAT

SCRIPT OF LISTENING

Oleh
Ikbar Nurkholisah Imaniar
NIM 122310101004

PROGRAM STUDI ILMU KEPERAWATAN

UNIVERSITAS JEMBER
2013

VOA HEALTH REPORT ABOUT ATRIAL FIBRILLATION PRODUCES AN

ABNORMAL HEARTBEAT

SCRIPT OF LISTENING
diajukan guna memenuhi mata kuliah Bahasa Inggris II dengan Dosem Pengampu:
Moh. Fadil, S., S.Pd

Oleh
Ikbar Nurkholisah Imaniar
NIM 122310101004

PROGRAM STUDI ILMU KEPERAWATAN

UNIVERSITAS JEMBER
2013

VOA HEALTH REPORT ABOUT ATRIAL FIBRILLATION PRODUCES AN

ABNORMAL HEARTBEAT

SCRIPT OF LISTENING

Oleh
Wahyu Dini Candra Susila
NIM 122310101043

PROGRAM STUDI ILMU KEPERAWATAN

UNIVERSITAS JEMBER
2013

VOA HEALTH REPORT ABOUT ATRIAL FIBRILLATION PRODUCES AN

ABNORMAL HEARTBEAT

SCRIPT OF LISTENING
diajukan guna memenuhi mata kuliah Bahasa Inggris II dengan Dosem Pengampu:
Moh. Fadil, S., S.Pd

Oleh
Wahyu Dini Candra Susila
NIM 122310101043

PROGRAM STUDI ILMU KEPERAWATAN

UNIVERSITAS JEMBER
2013

This is the VOA special english health report!

A condition called atrial fibrillation produces an abnormal heartbeat. People feel
their heart race and they lose their breath. It may last a few seconds, but it can get worse
and worse with age, leading to a heart attack or stroke. Doctors generally treat atrial
fibrillation with drugs. But a new study shows that another treatment may have better
results for patients who were not helped by drug therapy. The treatment is called catheter
ablation. Doctors place a long thin tube called a catheter into the heart. Then they use radio
frequency energy to heat the tissue around the catheter. The heat burns off a small amount
of heart muscle. The goal is to block abnormal electrical activity in the heart. Researchers
studied more than one hundred fifty patients who had failed to respond to at least one drug
in the past. In the study about one hundred of them had catheter ablation. The others were
treated with more drugs. There was a nine month follow up period to compare the
effectiveness.
Doctor David Wilber at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois was the lead
author of the study. He says catheter ablation worked in sixty to seventy percent of the
patients. By comparison abnormal heartbeats returned in eighty to ninety percent of those
treated with drugs. But Doctor Wilber says catheter ablation is not meant to be the first
treatment choice for atrial fibrillation. He suggests it only when drug therapy fails to work.
The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Doctors can also
use catheters to open blocked arteries that supply blood to the heart. That happened last
week with Bill Clinton. The former president had a procedure called an angioplasty.
Doctors used a catheter and placed two mesh tubes, called stents, into a blocked artery to
help keep it open. Bill Clinton was taken to a New York Hospital last thursday and released
the next day. His heart doctor Alan Schwartz said, the former president had been feeling
pressure in his chest for several days.
Alan Schwartz: "He had been having episodes of chest discomfort that were brief in nature.
But because they were repetitive, he contacted me and came in."
The American College of Cardiology says one in five patients who receive angioplasty has
already had heart bypass surgery. That includes Bill Clinton. He had a major operation
because of blockages in two thousand four. Doctors say it is common for heart patients to
need new stents over time.
And that's the VOA special english health report. I'm Bob Doughty.