Preliminary experience on radiofrequency ablation of atrial fibrillation guided by 3-dimensional electroanatomic mapping system

Objective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of radiofrequency catheter ablation guided by 3-dimensional electroanatomic mapping system(CARTO)in treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation(AF).Methods Twenty-eight patients with paroxysmal AF and 2 patients with persistent AF were studied.Circumferential pulmonary vein(PV) ablation was performed for paroxysmal AF patients.The end points were complete PVs isolation and stopping of AF which could not be induced.For the 2 patients with persistent AF,areas associated with complex fractionated atrial electrograms(CFAEs) were identified and ablated.Levels of troponin-T(cTnT),creatinine kinase(CK) and its isoform(CK-MB) were measured before and after the procedure in 16 paroxysmal AF patients.Results All the paroxysmal AF patients achieved the end points after ablation.Of the 2 persistent AF patients,1 had AF terminated during ablation,and the other received direct current cardioversion after ablation.Small amount of pericardial effusion was detected in one patient.After 5.6±3.5 months of follow-up,25 patients were AF free,the success rate for single procedure was 83.3 %.The cTnT level at baseline was(0.01±0.00) μg/L,and was elevated to(2.20±0.99) μg/L(P0.01) on the first day after ablation.Conclusion Radiofrequency catheter ablation of AF guided by CARTO is safe and effective,but cTnT elevates remarkably after ablation.