In yesterday's Health Matters we learned that more than 2 million American suffer from a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation.

Irene Gambino was on medication to treat her atrial fibrillation, but eventually the symptoms returned. "You're almost out of breath and sometimes when you go into a-fib; you get out of breath and it's like racing. Your heart is just racing."

Cardiac electrophysiologist Carlos Cuello explains that a variety of non-drug treatments are also available to help control symptoms of atrial fibrillation. They include permanent pacemakers, implantable cardio-defibrillators, surgery and a technique that's now available in Southwest Florida called ablation. "Ablation means destruction of tissue. The origin of atrial fibrillation is in those cells that fire rapidly from the left side. We then identify where those cells are, specifically where and then we burn them."

Dr. Cuello says that the ablation procedure is considered minimally invasive and it doesn't require open-heart surgery. "Once you eliminate the cells that cause atrial fibrillation, it may be permanently cured."

Irene's atrial fibrillation took her to the hospital on numerous occasions and even though she was a little nervous of having the ablation procedure performed; she was really looking forward to the end results. "When I heard the word cured. In this day and age, cure is a wonderful, wonderful thing to hear."

In most cases, the ablation procedure has a 95% success rate of curing atrial fibrillation.