Atrial deformation: the key to maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation?
Open Access
- 3 January 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in European Heart Journal
- Vol. 29 (12), 1483-1484
- https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehn227
Abstract
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common serious arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice, and accounts for approximately one-third of all hospitalizations for cardiac rhythm disturbances.1 Consequently, effective therapies for conversion of AF to, and maintenance of, sinus rhythm (SR) have been actively sought. Currently, catheter-based ablation techniques have been shown to be promising in the elimination of AF. However, a significant percentage of patients undergoing catheter ablation have recurrence of AF; in one recent study, only 64% of patients with paroxysmal and 45% of patients with persistent AF were AF-free at 12 months follow-up.2 Other groups have shown that with complete pulmonary vein and posterior left atrial (LA) isolation, up to 63% of chronic AF patients maintained SR at 2 years3. Therefore, there is a great interest in markers, either clinical, biological. or imaging-based, that can predict which patients will maintain SR after catheter ablation and which will revert back to AF.Keywords
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