Differential Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Patients with Longstanding Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Presenting with Recurrent Atrial Tachycardia versus Recurrent Atrial Fibrillation after First Ablation

It is unknown if baseline characteristics and prognosis of patients with longstanding persistent (defined as history greater than 1 year) atrial fibrillation (LS-AF) differ among those with either recurrent atrial tachycardia (R-AT) or recurrent AF (R-AF) after first ablation.

In 222 consecutive LS-AF patients treated for R-AT or R-AF after first ablation, activation and entrainment mapping was used to identify R-AT mechanism and to guide the following ablation, and the ablation endpoints for all patients included complete pulmonary vein isolation, bidirectional block of lines, and disappearance of complex fractionated atrial electrograms. read more