Practice Patterns of Operators Participating in the Real-World Experience of Catheter Ablation for Treatment of Symptomatic Paroxysmal and Persistent Atrial Fibrillation (REAL-AF)?Registry

摘要

Abstract Background The Real-World Experience of Catheter Ablation for Treatment of Symptomatic Paroxysmal and Persistent Atrial Fibrillation (REAL-AF) is a multicenter prospective registry of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. We sought to describe the baseline workflows of REAL-AF operators.Methods REAL-AF enrolls high volume minimum fluoroscopy radiofrequency ablators. A 150 item questionnaire was administered to participating operators. Responses were analyzed using standard methods.Results Forty-two respondents had a mean 178.2?±?89.2 yearly AF ablations, with 42.4?±?11.9% being paroxysmal (PAF). Most operators performed ablation with uninterrupted or minimally interrupted anticoagulation (66.7% and 28.6%). Left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombus was most commonly ruled out with transesophageal echocardiography (33.3% and 42.9% for PAF and persistent AF). Consistent with registry design, radiofrequency energy (92.1%?±?18.8% of cases) and zero fluoroscopy ablation (73.8% goal 0 fluoroscopy) were common. The majority of operators relied on index-guided ablation (90.5%); Mean Visitag surpoint targets were higher anteriorly vs posteriorly (508.3?±?49.8 vs 392.3?±?37.0, p?