Can catheter ablation therapy improve arrhythmia control in patients with drug-refractory atrial fibrillation?

摘要

Antiarrhythmic medical therapy for patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) can be augmented by adjunctive catheter ablation therapy; however, further investigation is needed, as the design of previous studies investigating catheter ablation therapy in patients unresponsive to AF drug therapy has been flawed. OBJECTIVE To find out whether catheter ablation combined with antiarrhythmic medication can prevent recurrent AF in patients with persistent or paroxysmal AF who have not responded to drug therapy.