Statistical analysis
Continuous variables were summarized as mean (standard deviation). For
pooling the primary outcome of interest, the mean difference (MD) with
95% confidence interval in pre-ablation LA-PLSsys between patients with
and without post-ablation AF recurrence, meta-analysis, based on
aggregate data, was performed. To allow for expected effect size
dispersion between studies (based on intra/inter-observer variation,
different methodology/ softwares used and different sample synthesis) a
random effects (DerSimonian-Laird) model was adopted. Heterogeneity was
assessed using I2, with values between 50% and 90%
representing substantial heterogeneity[12]. To
explore heterogeneity sensitivity analysis (including only high quality
studies) and subgroup analysis were performed. Moreover meta-regression
analysis was performed to explore the confounding effect of age,
comorbidities and baseline echocardiographic characteristics. All
analyses were performed using STATA/MP version 16.0, Texas, USA
software.