Ablation outcomes
AF recurrence was observed in 101 (20%) patients after 1.4±0.6 ablation procedures (maximum 4). On analysis of AF recurrence at 1 year after the first ablation (Figure 3A), group A performed significantly better than the other groups, but there was no difference between groups B and C. Comparison of clinical outcomes after multiple procedures in the three groups showed that the results depended on the extent of LVA (Figure 3B). Namely, the group without LVA (group A) had an extremely high success rate despite persistent AF. In contrast, more than half of the patients with extensive LVAs (group C) developed recurrence within a few years, even after multiple treatments. The poor prognosis of patients with extensive LVAs was also seen in the analysis of patients who were retreated (Figure 3C).
Multivariate analysis of AF-free survival after the last procedure showed that LVAs > 20 cm2 and longer AF duration were independent factors associated with AF recurrence (Table 2).