Substrate-based ablation of atypical atrial flutter in patients with atrial cardiomyopathy

Standard therapy of atypical atrial flutter (AFL) aims at deploying ablation lines between two non-conducting anatomical structures, thereby creating a line of block within the re-entry circuit. We have developed an ablation strategy, where we incorporate voltage information as a surrogate for atrial fibrosis from the electro-anatomical map (EAM) during AFL ablation procedures to create individualized, substrate-based ablation lines along the area of most pronounced low-voltage within the reentry-circuit.

The aim of this study was to evaluate acute procedural success and long-term outcome of a substrate-based ablation (SBA) strategy in comparison to a standard anatomically based ablation (ABA) strategy for the ablation of atypical AFL.

Patients that underwent ablation for AFL at our institution were included. SBA procedures were compared to ABA procedures. Endpoints were acute termination of AFL and recurrence of the index AFL or any other AFL during follow-up.

We included 47 patients, 24 individuals (51.1%) in the SBA group and 23 patients (48.9%) in the ABA group. Most patients had signs of atrial cardiomyopathy, namely enlarged left atrial diameter (LAD) and extended amount of left atrial low-voltage areas (LVA). Termination of AFL occurred in 27 of 29 (93.1%) AFL in the SBA group and in 28 of 31 (90.3%) AFL in the ABA group (p = 0.99). Freedom from recurrence of any atypical AFL after 2.5 years was 21.5% in the ABA group compared to 48.8% in the SBA group (p = 0.047).

Substrate-based ablation is as effective as an anatomically-based ablation in the acute termination of AFL but yields better rhythm outcome with less recurrence of AFL in patients with atrial cardiomyopathy.