Studying White Roofs as a Way to Reduce Urban Heat

Also, scientists show how fishing boats influence bird behavior, and .

01 March 2010

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, skyline with the city's white-roofed convention center in the foreground

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we will tell about the medical condition known as atrial fibrillation. We also will tell about two studies of seabirds, and how a change of color could help fight rising temperatures. And, we will tell what officials in California have done to protect historic objects on the moon.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Atrial fibrillation produces an abnormal heartbeat. People feel their heart race and they lose their breath. The problem 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 recent study shows that another treatment may have better results for patients who were not helped by drugs. 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.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Researchers studied more than one hundred fifty patients whose condition had failed to improve after taking at least one drug. In the study, about one hundred of the patients had catheter ablation. The others were treated with more drugs. There was a nine-month follow-up period to compare the effectiveness.