High Cerebrovascular Thromboembolic Event Rate Long after Unsuccessful Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

Background: Although catheter ablation (CA) is an accepted therapeutic option for atrial fibrillation (AF), data is lacking concerning the long-term thromboembolic event (TE) and mortality rate of patients after unsuccessful CA for AF.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to detect the long-term TE and mortality rate of patients with successful CA (group A) of AF and compared those with unsuccessful ablation (group B).

Methods: Following a 4-years of follow-up (FU) 330 patients were included into the groupA, and 105 patients into the group B. Primary outcome was defined as all stroke/TIA occurrence. Secondary outcome was considered as all-cause mortality and stroke - and TIA only occurrence.

Results: Seventeen patients developed a stroke/TIA during a median of 5.8 [5.1-7.3] years of FU. In the group A 8 (2.4%) patients developed a stroke/TIA during a FU of 2037 person-years (incidence rate 3.92 per 1000 person-years), compared to 9 patients in the group B during a FU of 726 person-years (incidence rate 12.4 per 1000 person-years). The crude HR for primary outcome was 2.84 (95% CI 1.078-7.48) in the group B compared with the group A. Cumulative TIA-alone incidence (3.97, CI 1.10-14.34, p=0.035) and the annualized TIA-alone incidence rate was significantly higher in the group B. (p=0.029). Neither the mortality rate nor the incidence rate of stroke-alone differed significantly among the groups.

Conclusions: The risk of all stroke/TIA and TIA-alone is higher among patients after unsuccessful CA of AF compared to those after successful ablation.