Baseline characteristics
The clinical characteristics of the transplant patients and controls are presented in Table 1. All of the variables studied with respect to demographics (age, gender and BMI), AF type, AF duration, medical history (hypertension, HF, prior stroke/TIA, DM and CAD), echocardiographic parameters (LA, LVEDD and LVEF), EHRA stratification and medical therapy were comparable between the two groups. Transplant patients had relatively higher CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores than the controls. The mean eGFR was 80.3±13.9 ml/min/1.73 m² in the transplant group and 91.9±12.6 ml/min/1.73 m² in the control group (P=0.007). The preoperative creatinine concentration was higher in the transplant group than in the control group (88.4±22.8 vs. 74.6±14.7, P=0.017), whereas the levels of ALT, AST, TBIL, DBIL, Hb and PLT were comparable between the two groups.
The detailed clinical features of the transplant recipients are shown in Table 2. The mean age at the time of ablation was 59.0±5.5 years for all transplant patients, and the median time from transplantation to CA was 10.3±5.5 years. The mean duration of the AF episode before CA was 47.6±45.1 months. Males made up the majority of the transplant group (n=11; 78.6%). Seven patients (77.8%) in the renal transplant recipients and four patients (80.0%) in the hepatic transplant recipients were male. Most transplant patients had a history of hypertension (n=11; 78.6%). All patients in the transplant group were on immunosuppressive therapy.