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).