Prior antiarrhythmic drug use and the outcome of atrial fibrillation ablation.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation is generally performed after patients fail antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) therapy. Some patients have drug contraindications or choose to avoid a lifetime of drug therapy. Little is known about the impact of previous drug therapy on ablation outcomes. We evaluated AAD use before AF ablation and its impact on ablation outcomes.

Methods and results

We evaluated freedom from AF after ablation and patients' clinical characteristics by number of AADs failed in 1125 patients undergoing 1504 ablations. We also evaluated reasons why some patients did not receive prior drug therapy. Cox multivariate analysis examined factors predicting ablation failure. Patients failing more drugs before ablation were older (P = 0.001), had a longer duration of AF (P

SUBMITTER: Winkle RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4051413 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature