Patient and procedural characteristics
The patient and procedural characteristics are shown in Table 1.
Although age, gender, left atrial diameter (LAD) and left ventricular
ejection fraction (LVEF), creatinine level was matched, the other
patient characteristics including CHADS2 score, brain natriuretic
peptide (BNP) level were also comparative between the PLS and the
control. As for the ablation procedure in the control group with patchy
LGE site, pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), PVI plus substrate
modification including linear ablation, complex fractionated atrial
electrograms (CFAE) ablation, low-voltage area (LVA) ablation and PVI
plus Box lesion were performed in 17 (55%), 4 (13%) and 10 (32%) of
31 patients, respectively. In the control group without patchy LGE site,
pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), PVI plus substrate modification
including linear ablation, complex fractionated atrial electrograms
(CFAE) ablation, low-voltage area (LVA) ablation and PVI plus Box lesion
were performed in 27 (88%), 2 (6%) and 2 (6%) of 31 patients,
respectively. As for the procedural characteristics, the procedure time
were comparative among the groups, but the fluoroscopy time was
significantly longer in the PLS group than that in the control group
without patchy LGE site (fluoroscopic time: 22 ± 11 min and 16 ± 4 min,
p = 0.01).