High Cerebrovascular Thromboembolic Event Rate Long after Unsuccessful Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

Although catheter ablation (CA) is an accepted therapeutic option for atrial fibrillation (AF), data is lacking concerning the long-term thromboembolic event (TE) and mortality rate of patients after unsuccessful CA for AF.

The aim of the current study was to detect the long-term TE and mortality rate of patients with successful CA (group A) of AF and compared those with unsuccessful ablation (group B).

Following a 4-years of follow-up (FU) 330 patients were included into the groupA, and 105 patients into the group B. Primary outcome was defined as all stroke/TIA occurrence. Secondary outcome was considered as all-cause mortality and stroke - and TIA only occurrence.

Seventeen patients developed a stroke/TIA during a median of 5.8 [5.1-7.3] years of FU. In the group A 8 (2.4%) patients developed a stroke/TIA during a FU of 2037 person-years (incidence rate 3.92 per 1000 person-years), compared to 9 patients in the group B during a FU of 726 person-years (incidence rate 12.4 per 1000 person-years). The crude HR for primary outcome was 2.84 (95% CI 1.078-7.48) in the group B compared with the group A. Cumulative TIA-alone incidence (3.97, CI 1.10-14.34, p=0.035) and the annualized TIA-alone incidence rate was significantly higher in the group B. (p=0.029). Neither the mortality rate nor the incidence rate of stroke-alone differed significantly among the groups.

The risk of all stroke/TIA and TIA-alone is higher among patients after unsuccessful CA of AF compared to those after successful ablation.