BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac death is the most common cause of death in childhood hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Recently, 2 risk scores have been developed to estimate the 5-year risk of sudden cardiac death. We aimed...BACKGROUND: Sudden cardiac death is the most common cause of death in childhood hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Recently, 2 risk scores have been developed to estimate the 5-year risk of sudden cardiac death. We aimed to assess their respective performances in an independent cohort. METHODS: All patients with HCM aged <18 years from a single center were retrospectively included between 2003 and 2023. HCM Risk-Kids and PRIMaCY risk scores were calculated at diagnosis and during follow-up. The primary composite outcome included sustained ventricular arrhythmia, appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy, aborted cardiac arrest, or sudden cardiac death. RESULTS: A total of 100 primary prevention children were included (7.1±5.6 years, 59.0% males), with a mean follow-up of 8.6±5.5 years. Overall, 13 (13.0%) patients experienced the primary composite outcome. When only considering events during the 5 first years, Harrel C index was 0.52 (95% CI, 0.27-0.77) for HCM Risk-Kids (≥6%) and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.59-0.80) for PRIMaCY (>8.3%), with 1 patient potentially treated by ICD for every 25 ICDs implanted for HCM Risk-Kids and 1 for every 14 ICDs implanted for PRIMaCY. When risk scores were repeated and all primary outcomes during follow-up were considered, 12 of 13 (92.3%) events were correctly identified using both risk scores, with 1 patient potentially treated by ICD for every 5.6 ICDs implanted for HCM Risk-Kids and 1 for every 5.3 ICDs implanted for PRIMaCY. Among 44 (44.0%) patients implanted with an ICD, all primary prevention patients who had ≥1 appropriate ICD therapy during follow-up had an HCM Risk-Kids ≥6% and PRIMaCY >8.3% at implantation. CONCLUSIONS: In this independent evaluation, our findings suggest imperfect discrimination between low and high-risk patients using the HCM Risk-Kids and PRIMaCY risk scores, with predicted risks tending to be overestimated compared with the actual observed events. The performance or risk scores was substantially improved by periodic reassessment during follow-up.
Ganesan P, Pedron M, Feng R
… +13 more, Rogers AJ, Deb B, Chang HJ, Ruiperez-Campillo S, Srivastava V, Brennan KA, Giles WR, Baykaner T, Clopton P, Wang PJ, Schotten U, Krummen DE, Narayan SM
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Feb · PMID 39925268
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BACKGROUND: It is difficult to identify patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) most likely to respond to ablation. While any arrhythmia patient may recur after acutely successful ablation, AF is unusual in that patients...BACKGROUND: It is difficult to identify patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) most likely to respond to ablation. While any arrhythmia patient may recur after acutely successful ablation, AF is unusual in that patients may have long-term arrhythmia freedom despite a lack of acute success. We hypothesized that acute and chronic AF ablation outcomes may reflect distinct physiology and used machine learning of multimodal data to identify their phenotypes. METHODS: We studied 561 consecutive patients in the Stanford AF ablation registry (66±10 years, 28% women, 67% nonparoxysmal), from whom we extracted 72 data features of electrograms, electrocardiogram, cardiac structure, lifestyle, and clinical variables. We compared 6 machine learning models to predict acute and long-term end points after ablation and used Shapley explainability analysis to contrast phenotypes. We validated our results in an independent external population of n=77 patients with AF. RESULTS: The 1-year success rate was 69.5%, and the acute termination rate was 49.6%, which correlated poorly on a patient-by-patient basis (φ coefficient=0.08). The best model for acute termination (area under the curve=0.86, Random Forest) was more predictive than for long-term outcomes (area under the curve=0.67, logistic regression; <0.001). Phenotypes for long-term success reflected clinical and lifestyle features, while phenotypes for AF termination reflected electrical features. The need for AF induction predicted both phenotypes. The external validation cohort showed similar results (area under the curve=0.81 and 0.64, respectively) with similar phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: Long-term and acute responses to AF ablation reflect distinct clinical and electrical physiology, respectively. This de-linking of phenotypes raises the question of whether long-term success operates through factors such as attenuated AF progression. There remains an urgent need to develop procedural predictors of long-term AF ablation success.
Amin AM, Elbenawi H, Khan U
… +10 more, Almaadawy O, Turkmani M, Abdelmottaleb W, Essa M, Abuelazm M, Abdelazeem B, Asad ZUA, Deshmukh A, Link MS, DeSimone CV
BACKGROUND: Current clinical guidelines emphasize the significance of rhythm control with catheter ablation but lack guidance on the timing of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation relative to the diagnosis time. We aim to i...BACKGROUND: Current clinical guidelines emphasize the significance of rhythm control with catheter ablation but lack guidance on the timing of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation relative to the diagnosis time. We aim to investigate the latest evidence on the impact of diagnosis to ablation time (DAT) on clinical outcomes after AF ablation. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials through August 2024. Pairwise, prognostic, and reconstructed time-to-event data meta-analyses were conducted using R V. 4.3.1. Our primary end point was time to first AF recurrence, with secondary end points of all-cause mortality, tamponade, stroke, and heart failure. RESULTS: Our cohort included 23 studies with 43 711 patients. Shorter DAT was significantly associated with reduced AF recurrence across both paroxysmal and persistent AF subgroups (<0.01). There was a significant decrease in benefit for paroxysmal AF over time and a slight decrease in benefit for persistent AF over time. However, the benefit remained significant in both over time. DAT per year was significantly associated with a 10% increased risk of AF recurrence. Reconstructed Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that DAT >1 year was significantly associated with a 70% increased risk of AF recurrence in paroxysmal AF and 30% in persistent AF. DAT ≤1 year was significantly associated with decreased all-cause mortality (<0.01) and showed a trend toward an association with a lower incidence of stroke (=0.08). However, there was no significant difference in heart failure between DAT ≤1 year and DAT >1 year. CONCLUSIONS: Early ablation is more beneficial in paroxysmal AF, with a notable decrease in benefit over time, while in persistent AF, the benefit remains significant but slightly decreases over time. Shorter DAT was significantly associated with decreased all-cause mortality and showed a trend toward an association with a lower incidence of stroke. REGISTRATION:URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?; Unique identifier: CRD42024525542.
Haq KT, McLean KM, Anderson-Barker GC
… +3 more, Berul CI, Shattock MJ, Posnack NG
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Feb · PMID 39895520
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BACKGROUND: QT correction (QTc) formulae are widely used in clinical and research settings but often underperform, possibly due to demographic influences on the QT-heart rate (HR) relationship. To address this limitation...BACKGROUND: QT correction (QTc) formulae are widely used in clinical and research settings but often underperform, possibly due to demographic influences on the QT-heart rate (HR) relationship. To address this limitation, we developed an adaptive QTc (QTcAd) formula, which adjusts for demographic factors like age, and compared its efficacy to other standard formulae. METHODS: The QTcAd formula was tested across diverse age groups with different HR in both humans and guinea pigs. Using retrospective ECG data from 1819 pediatric patients at Children's National Hospital and 2400 subjects from the Pediatric Heart Network database, alongside in vivo (N=55) and ex vivo (N=66) guinea pig ECG recordings, we evaluated the formula's effectiveness. Linear regression fit parameters of QTc-HR (slope and ²) were utilized for performance assessment. To evaluate the accuracy of the predicted QTc, we acquired epicardial electrical and optical voltage data from Langendorff-perfused guinea pig hearts. RESULTS: In both human subjects and guinea pigs, the QTcAd formula (QTcAd=QT+(||×(HR-HR)) consistently outperformed other formulae across all age groups. For instance, in a 20-year-old human group, the QTcAd formula successfully nullified the inverse QT-HR relationship (²=5.1×10, slope=-3.5×10), whereas the Bazett formula failed to achieve comparable effectiveness (²=0.21, slope=0.91). Moreover, the QTcAd formula exhibited better accuracy than the age-specific Benatar QTc formula, which overcorrected QTc (1-week human QT: 263.8±14.8 ms, QTcAd: 263.8±7.3 ms, =0.62; Benatar QTc: 422.5±7.3 ms, <0.0001). The optically measured pseudo-QT interval (143±22.5 ms, n=44) was better approximated by QTcAd (180.6±17.0 ms) compared with all other formulae. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the QTcAd formula was not inferior to individual-specific QTc formulae. CONCLUSIONS: The demography-based QTcAd formula showed superior performance across human and guinea pig age groups, which may enhance the efficacy of rate-corrected K.M.M. for cardiovascular disease diagnosis, risk stratification, and drug safety testing in children and adults.
Abdelfattah OM, Sayed A, Al-Jwaid A
… +5 more, Hassan A, Abu Jazar D, Narayanan A, Link MS, Martinez MW
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Feb · PMID 39895487
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BACKGROUND: Over the past decades, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has become a contemporary treatable disease. However, limited data exist on the global trends of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) utilization and...BACKGROUND: Over the past decades, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has become a contemporary treatable disease. However, limited data exist on the global trends of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) utilization and its impact on mortality/morbidity burden reduction. METHODS: Electronic databases were systematically searched up to March 2024 for studies reporting on ICD utilization rates in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A random effects model was used to pool study estimates across time-era, geographic region, and age group. Primary outcome was global trends in ICD utilization. Secondary outcomes included trends of sudden cardiac death, appropriate/inappropriate shocks, and ICD-related complications. RESULTS: In total, 234 studies (N=92 500, 514 748 patient-years) met inclusion criteria. Mean age was 46.2 (12.4) years and 37.49% were women. A total of 12 139 patients (16.43%) received an ICD over 429 766 person-years of follow-up, with an ICD implantation rate of 2.79%/y ([95% CI, 2.35%-3.32%] I²=97.80%). Rates of ICD implantation steadily increased over time from 1990 (1.09%) to 2021 (4.01%; =0.002), with noticeable geographic variation (=0.008). The overall rate of appropriate ICD discharges and ICD-related complications was 3.44%/y ([95% CI, 3.08%-3.84%] I²=88.40%) and 1.98%/y ([95% CI, 1.52%-2.59%] I²=90.44%), respectively, with no significant trend over time. The overall rate of inappropriate discharges was 3.58%/y ([95% CI, 3.08%-4.16%] I=88.03%), and declined significantly over time (=0.044). There was a significant decline in the rates of sudden cardiac death from 1990 (0.84%/y) to 2020 (0.31%/y). CONCLUSIONS: Dramatic increases in ICD utilization have occurred, representing a 3.7-fold increase, with appropriate therapies occurring in 3.44%/y. In parallel a significant reduction in sudden cardiac death was observed, but there are insufficient data to demonstrate that a causative relationship exists. Geographic disparities in ICD utilization were evident, highlighting the need to improve access to specialized care for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Geographic disparities in ICD utilization were evident, highlighting the need to improve access to specialized care for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. REGISTRATION:URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/; Unique identifier: CRD42023407126.
BACKGROUND: Power-controlled radiofrequency ablation with irrigated-tip catheters has been the norm for ventricular ablation for almost 2 decades. New catheter technology has recently integrated more accurate tissue temp...BACKGROUND: Power-controlled radiofrequency ablation with irrigated-tip catheters has been the norm for ventricular ablation for almost 2 decades. New catheter technology has recently integrated more accurate tissue temperature sensing enabling temperature-controlled irrigated ablation. We aimed to investigate the in vivo ablation parameters and lesion formation characteristics in ventricular myocardium using a novel temperature-controlled radiofrequency catheter. METHODS: Twenty canines were divided into 3 groups: 4 noninfarcted, acute (phase I); 8 noninfarcted, chronic (phase II); and 8 infarcted, chronic (phase III). Lesions were delivered with a temperature-controlled radiofrequency system utilizing a chemical vapor deposit diamond for efficient thermal diffusivity. In phase I, 17 ablation settings were tested (temperature set points, 50/60/70 °C; ablation duration, 15/30/60/90/120 s; and power limit, 30/50 W). Four and one of these sets of parameters were further tested in phases II and III, respectively. Lesions were assessed by ex vivo contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and gross pathology 5 weeks after ablation in phases II/III. RESULTS: Across all phases, 111 ablation lesions were delivered. Ablation with the power limit of 50 W, the temperature set point of 60 °C, and the duration of 60 s produced significantly larger and deeper lesions (mean, 569.2 mm; mean maximal depth, 9.8 mm) compared with 50 W/60 °C/30 s (mean, 340.4 mm; mean maximal depth, 8.3 mm) and 50 W/50 °C/60 s (mean, 227 mm; mean maximal depth, 6.9 mm), with <0.05 for all pairwise comparisons. Ablation of infarcted myocardium in phase III (50 W/60 °C/30 s) resulted in smaller impedance and bipolar electrogram amplitude changes and lesion size compared with ablation in normal myocardium with the same settings. No steam pop, myocardial perforation, or char formation was observed in any of the 111 ablations across all phases. CONCLUSIONS: In vivo radiofrequency ablation in a canine model with a diamond-tip temperature-controlled catheter using a temperature set point of 60 °C and a power limit of 50 W created large lesions without steam pop risk in both normal and infarcted ventricular myocardia.
Verma A, Maffre J, Sharma T
… +1 more, Farshchi-Heydari S
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Feb · PMID 39851044
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BACKGROUND: Sequential application of radiofrequency with pulsed field (PF) ablation may increase lesion depth while preserving the advantages of PF. The study's aim was to determine lesion dimensions of sequential, colo...BACKGROUND: Sequential application of radiofrequency with pulsed field (PF) ablation may increase lesion depth while preserving the advantages of PF. The study's aim was to determine lesion dimensions of sequential, colocalized radiofrequency and PF ablation. METHODS: A preclinical study using swine (n=4) performed lesions in the right/left ventricles. Ablations were performed with a force-sensing 3.5-mm irrigated-tip ablation catheter using a generator delivering both radiofrequency and PF. PF was delivered using unipolar, biphasic pulses at a standard dose (PF index, 300) with 4-mL/min irrigation. Radiofrequency was delivered at 50 W for 10 s (15 mL/min). Lesions were created by applying colocalized radiofrequency followed by sequential application of PF on the same location, PF followed by sequential application of radiofrequency on the same location, PF alone, or radiofrequency alone. Tissue was collected after 2 hours for lesion assessment. Results are mean±SD. RESULTS: Forty-five lesions were analyzed. The lesion depth of radiofrequency alone was 4.9±0.8 mm. The mean lesion depth and width for PF alone were 3.5±0.6 and 5.1±1.8 mm. Lesion depths for combined applications were significantly greater versus PF alone (6.2±1.8 mm radiofrequency followed by sequential application of PF on the same location; 5.7±1.3 mm PF followed by sequential application of radiofrequency on the same location; <0.0001 for both). Lesion widths were also significantly greater with combined therapy versus PF alone (8.6±1.8 mm radiofrequency followed by sequential application of PF on the same location; 8.9±2.1 mm PF followed by sequential application of radiofrequency on the same location; <0.0001 for both). Histology for both combined lesions showed central thermal necrosis surrounded by a hemorrhagic and transitional PF zone. CONCLUSIONS: Combined, colocalized radiofrequency and PF, irrespective of order, show significantly increased lesion size compared with the same dose of PF or radiofrequency alone.
BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing first-time atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation can benefit from targeting non-pulmonary vein (PV) triggers. Preprocedural identification of high-risk individuals can guide planning of ablati...BACKGROUND: Patients undergoing first-time atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation can benefit from targeting non-pulmonary vein (PV) triggers. Preprocedural identification of high-risk individuals can guide planning of ablation strategy. This study aimed to create a preprocedural screening tool to identify patients at risk of non-PV triggers during first-time AF ablation. METHODS: All patients who underwent first-time AF ablation at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania between 2018 and 2022 were identified. Those who underwent non-PV trigger provocative maneuvers or had spontaneous non-PV trigger firing were included. Non-PV triggers were defined as non-PV ectopic beats triggering AF or sustained focal atrial tachycardia that occurred spontaneously, after AF cardioversion, or after standard provocative maneuvers. The provocative maneuvers included incremental isoproterenol infusion (3, 6, 12, and 20-30 µg/min) and an atrial burst pacing protocol. Risk factors associated with non-PV triggers in a stepwise multivariable logistic regression model with backward elimination were used to create a risk score. RESULTS: A total of 163 (8.0%) of 2038 patients had non-PV triggers during first-time AF ablation. Based on the multivariable model, we created a risk score using female sex (1 point; odds ratio [OR], 1.90 [95% CI, 1.36-2.67]), sinus node dysfunction (1 point; OR, 1.84 [95% CI, 1.04-3.24]), prior cardiac surgery (1 point; OR, 2.26 [95% CI, 1.45-3.53]), moderate to severe left atrial enlargement (2 points; OR, 3.43 [95% CI, 2.46-4.79]), and cardiac sarcoidosis/amyloidosis (4 points; OR, 7.24 [95% CI, 3.03-17.33]). Internal validation using bootstrap resampling showed an optimism-adjusted C statistic of 0.715 (95% CI, 0.678-0.751). Among all first-time AF ablations, 68.1% of procedures were low-risk for non-PV triggers (scores 0-1, 4.3% risk), 17.8% were intermediate-risk (score 2, 10.5% risk), and 14.1% were high-risk (score ≥3, 22.6% risk). CONCLUSIONS: A preprocedural screening tool can classify patients based on their risk of non-PV triggers during first-time AF ablation. This risk score can guide operators to identify patients who would benefit most from adjunctive non-PV trigger testing. However, further validation is needed to confirm these findings.
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Jan · PMID 39704049
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BACKGROUND: Cardiac sarcoidosis involves a significant but difficult-to-define risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Current guidelines recommend consideration of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator for patients with...BACKGROUND: Cardiac sarcoidosis involves a significant but difficult-to-define risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Current guidelines recommend consideration of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator for patients with extensive or significant myocardial late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. However, extensive/significant LGE is not defined. METHODS: A nationwide cardiac sarcoidosis registry was screened for patients entered before 2020 with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging done before or <3 months after diagnosis. Available studies were re-analyzed for LGE mass as a percentage of left ventricular (LV) mass and the number of LGE-positive LV segments in a 17-segment model. The occurrence of fatal or aborted SCD and ventricular tachycardia (VT) prompting therapy was recorded until the end of 2020 and subjected to cumulative incidence analyses, including competing events (LV assist device implantations, heart transplantations, and fatalities other than SCD). The predictors of SCD/VT were assessed using Fine and Gray modeling and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic analysis. RESULTS: Altogether, 305 patients (66% women, median age 51) with clinically manifest, definite (45%) or probable cardiac sarcoidosis (55%) were analyzed. On follow-up (median, 4.0 years), 21 SCDs, 60 VTs, and 14 competing events were noted. Both LGE mass and the number of LGE segments predicted the composite of SCD/VT (<0.001), with receiver operating characteristic analyses identifying LGE mass ≥9.9% and ≥6 LGE segments as discriminative thresholds. At presentation, 70 patients were free of class I and class IIa implantable cardioverter defibrillator indications unrelated to LGE. Their 5-year rate of SCD/VT was 6.3% (0.0-14.8%) with LGE mass <9.9% versus 21.5% (6.5-36.6%) with higher LGE mass, and 6.9% (0.0-16.3%) with <6 LGE segments versus 20.5% (5.9-35.2%) with ≥6 segments. CONCLUSIONS: In cardiac sarcoidosis, myocardial LGE making up ≥9.9% of LV mass or affecting ≥6 LV segments may suggest prognostically significant LV involvement and a high risk of SCD. However, prospective validation of the thresholds is needed.
Anić A, Phlips T, Brešković T
… +8 more, Mediratta V, Girouard S, Jurišić Z, Sikirić I, Lisica L, Koopman P, Antole N, Vijgen J
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Jan · PMID 39698744
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BACKGROUND: Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is a promising treatment for atrial fibrillation. We report 1-year freedom from atrial arrhythmia outcomes using monopolar PFA delivered through 3 commercial, contact force-sensing...BACKGROUND: Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is a promising treatment for atrial fibrillation. We report 1-year freedom from atrial arrhythmia outcomes using monopolar PFA delivered through 3 commercial, contact force-sensing focal catheters. METHODS: ECLIPSE AF (Safety & Clinical Performance Study of Catheter Ablation With the Centauri System for Patients With Atrial Fibrillation; NCT04523545) was a prospective, single-arm, multicenter study evaluating acute and chronic safety and performance using the CENTAURI system to deliver focal PFA with TactiCath SE, StablePoint, and ThermoCool ST. Patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation underwent pulmonary vein (PV) isolation under deep sedation or general anesthesia and returned for remapping at 90 days to evaluate chronic durability. Freedom from atrial arrhythmia was evaluated continuously through 12 months using standard rhythm monitoring for symptomatic episodes and 24-hour Holter at 6 and 12 months. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients (74% male, 51.2% paroxysmal, and 58.5% deep sedation) were treated. PV isolation was achieved in 100% of targeted veins (322/322) with first-pass isolation in 92.2% (297/322). There were 4 primary safety events in 4 patients (4.9%, 4/82); 1 nonembolic stroke due to exacerbated cardiac tamponade secondary to catheter perforation and 3 hemorrhagic vascular access complications. There were no incidences of adverse event fistula, diaphragmatic paralysis, myocardial infarction, pericarditis, thromboembolism, PV stenosis, transient ischemic attack, or death. Eighty patients (98%) underwent remapping. Optimized PFA cohorts 3, 4, and 5 showed per-patient isolation rates of 60%, 73%, and 81% and per-PV isolation rates of 84%, 90%, and 92%, respectively. One-year freedom from atrial arrhythmia was 80.2% (95% CI, 69.7%-87.4%) for the entire patient sample, including 41 patients who underwent repeat focal PFA with the CENTAURI system at remapping. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that optimization of focal PFA with 3 contact force-sensing, solid-tip ablation catheters resulted in the progressive improvement of PV isolation durability at 3-month remapping and high freedom from atrial arrhythmia survival rates, providing a promising focal PFA treatment option integrated with current ablation workflows.
BACKGROUND: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) alone is less effective in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with those with paroxysmal AF. We investigate whether additional linear ablation from the s...BACKGROUND: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) alone is less effective in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with those with paroxysmal AF. We investigate whether additional linear ablation from the superior vena cava to the right atrial septum and cavotricuspid isthmus ablation improves the rhythm outcome of patients with persistent AF undergoing cryoballoon PVI (Cryo-PVI). METHODS: In this investigator-initiated, multicenter, randomized clinical trial, 289 patients with persistent AF refractory to antiarrhythmic drug therapy were randomized 1:1 to either Cryo-PVI with additional right atrium (RA) linear ablation or Cryo-PVI alone. The primary end point was any documented atrial arrhythmia lasting ≥30 seconds after a 3-month blanking period after ablation. The secondary end points were atrial arrhythmia recurrence or antiarrhythmic drug use after a 3-month blanking period, complications, and total procedure time. RESULTS: During the median follow-up of 24 months (median age, 63 years; 23.9% women), the atrial arrhythmia recurrence was less frequent in the additional RA ablation group (n=50, 37.5%) than in the Cryo-PVI alone group (n=69, 53.1%; absolute difference, -15.6% [95% CI, -27.9% to -3.4%]; hazard ratio, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.46-0.94]). Antiarrhythmic drugs were prescribed after the 3-month period to 72 (49.3%) patients in the additional RA ablation group and 79 (55.2%) patients in the Cryo-PVI alone group. No difference was found in complication rate between the 2 groups. Total procedure time was longer in the additional RA ablation group (median, 88 versus 72 minutes; <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Additional RA linear ablation beyond Cryo-PVI improved the ablation outcome compared with that of PVI alone in persistent AF patients.
BACKGROUND: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are often ill-equipped for shared decision-making. This study investigated the effects of a patient empowerment care model on patient-reported health outcomes and treatm...BACKGROUND: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are often ill-equipped for shared decision-making. This study investigated the effects of a patient empowerment care model on patient-reported health outcomes and treatment decision-making in patients with AF. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial prospectively randomized patients with AF to receive standard care (n=194) or a 13-week nurse-led multicomponent behavioral activation intervention (n=198). The intervention consisted of risk profile assessments, empowered shared decision-making regarding the use of oral anticoagulants (OACs), empowered AF self-management, and increased access to professional advice. The primary outcome was health-related quality of life measured after the completion of the intervention (T1), while the secondary outcomes were patient-physician decision concordance regarding OAC use, actual OAC use, AF knowledge, medication adherence, anxiety, and depression. RESULTS: The intervention group showed significantly greater improvements in health-related quality of life (β, -6.702 [95% CI, -9.556 to -3.847]; <0.001), AF knowledge (β, -1.989 [95% CI, -2.342 to -1.635]; <0.001), and medication adherence (β, 0.340 [95% CI, 0.148-0.532]; <0.001) at immediate post-intervention compared with the control group, and the improvements were sustained at 6 months for all outcomes. A higher proportion of patients in the intervention group were prescribed an OAC compared with the control group at 6 months (odds ratio, 5.870 [95% CI, 1.957-12.331]; =0.012). No significant between-group differences were detected for patient-physician decision concordance regarding OAC use, anxiety, or depression at both time points. CONCLUSIONS: The nurse-led multicomponent behavioral activation intervention improved patient-reported outcomes and increased OAC prescription among patients with AF.
BACKGROUND: Superior vena cava (SVC) has been considered a specific trigger in atrial fibrillation development. METHODS: We investigated the efficacy and safety of combining cryoballoon pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) wit...BACKGROUND: Superior vena cava (SVC) has been considered a specific trigger in atrial fibrillation development. METHODS: We investigated the efficacy and safety of combining cryoballoon pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) with SVC ablation compared with PVI alone in 100 patients with paroxysmal or non-long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation. Patients were randomly assigned to either the PVI+SVC ablation group or the PVI-only group. Each patient was given a mobile device to record a daily ECG and detect atrial tachyarrhythmias. RESULTS: The primary end point, freedom from any atrial tachyarrhythmia recurrence between 91 and 365 days post-catheter ablation, did not significantly differ between the 2 groups (62.9% versus 72%; =0.41). However, the PVI+SVC group exhibited higher rates of phrenic nerve paralysis (20.8% versus 6%; =0.003) and transient sinus node injury (18.8% versus 0%; =0.001) compared with the PVI-only group. The median burden of atrial tachyarrhythmia showed no significant difference (=0.91). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of SVC ablation to PVI did not enhance freedom from atrial tachyarrhythmia at 12 months, and it led to increased complications. These findings do not support the routine inclusion of SVC ablation in cryoballoon procedures for first-time catheter ablation in patients with paroxysmal or non-long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation.
Feng R, Brennan KA, Azizi Z
… +14 more, Goyal J, Deb B, Chang HJ, Ganesan P, Clopton P, Pedron M, Ruipérez-Campillo S, Desai YB, De Larochellière H, Baykaner T, Perez MV, Rodrigo M, Rogers AJ, Narayan SM
Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol
· 2025 Jan · PMID 39676642
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BACKGROUND: Large language models (LLMs) such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) excel at interpreting unstructured data from public sources, yet are limited when responding to queries on private reposi...BACKGROUND: Large language models (LLMs) such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) excel at interpreting unstructured data from public sources, yet are limited when responding to queries on private repositories, such as electronic health records (EHRs). We hypothesized that prompt engineering could enhance the accuracy of LLMs for interpreting EHR data without requiring domain knowledge, thus expanding their utility for patients and personalized diagnostics. METHODS: We designed and systematically tested prompt engineering techniques to improve the ability of LLMs to interpret EHRs for nuanced diagnostic questions, referenced to a panel of medical experts. In 490 full-text EHR notes from 125 patients with prior life-threatening heart rhythm disorders, we asked GPT-4-turbo to identify recurrent arrhythmias distinct from prior events and tested 220 563 queries. To provide context, results were compared with rule-based natural language processing and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer-based language models. Experiments were repeated for 2 additional LLMs. RESULTS: In an independent hold-out set of 389 notes, GPT-4-turbo had a balanced accuracy of 64.3%±4.7% out-of-the-box at baseline. This increased when asking GPT-4-turbo to provide a rationale for its answers, a structured data output, and in-context exemplars, to a balanced accuracy of 91.4%±3.8% (<0.05). This surpassed the traditional logic-based natural language processing and BERT-based models (<0.05). Results were consistent for GPT-3.5-turbo and Jurassic-2 LLMs. CONCLUSIONS: The use of prompt engineering strategies enables LLMs to identify clinical end points from EHRs with an accuracy that surpassed natural language processing and approximated experts, yet without the need for expert knowledge. These approaches could be applied to LLM queries for other domains, to facilitate automated analysis of nuanced data sets with high accuracy by nonexperts.