engleski

Influence of AV junction radiofrequency catheter ablation on the clinical outcome in patients with atrial fibrillation

We comparatively evaluated the clinical outcome after AV junction radiofrequency catheter ablation in 15 patients (pts)(in all heart disease) with chronic (chr) and 24 pts (in 16 heart disease) with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). In all pts, the clinical evaluation included symptoms before and after , NYHA class and a mortality rate. Mean follow-up was 17 months in pts with chr and 15 months in pts with par AF. Before ablation, the incidence of dyspnea was higher in pts with chr AF (13 vs 4, p<0.01), while the incidence of syncope was higher in pts with par AF (20 vs 5, p<0.05). Six pts with chr and 17 pts with par AF were in NYHA class I/II (p=ns). After ablation, 9 pts with chr AF and 3 pts with par AF improved from NYHA class III/II to class II/I (p<0.01). The incidence of symptoms (the most frequently dyspnea) and mortality rate(one pt in each group) were similar in the both groups. Conclusions: 1) The higher incidence of dyspnea in pts with chr AF before ablation is probbly due to inadequte ventricular rate and presence of the heart disease in all of these pts. 2) The beneficial effect of AV junction ablation is more expressive in pts with chr AF than in pts with par AF, because they have a higher rate of improvement of NYHA class and similar incidence of symptoms and mortality rate to those with par AF.

AV junction ablation; atrial fibrillation

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