Impact of diastolic dysfunction on the outcome of catheter ablation in patients with atrial fibrillation

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of diastolic dysfunction on the outcome of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation.MethodsEighty consecutive patients with drug-refractory symptomatic AF who underwent AF ablation were enrolled (65 males, 58 ± 10 years, 65 paroxysmal AF, 15 persistent AF). All patients underwent extensive pulmonary vein isolation with a double lasso technique using CARTO MERGE. Diastolic dysfunction was defined as a ratio of the mitral inflow early filling velocity to the velocity of the early medial mitral annular ascent of > 10. The clinical and echocardiographic data were compared between the patients with and without diastolic dysfunction, and between the patients with and without AF recurrences after the AF ablation.ResultsTwenty-nine out of all the patients (36.3%) had diastolic dysfunction. Compared with the patients without diastolic dysfunction, the patients with diastolic dysfunction had higher brain natriuretic peptide (p = 0.001) and C-reactive protein (p = 0.023) levels, and a larger left atrial diameter (P = 0.019). The AF-free rate after a single or repeat AF ablation procedure in the patients with diastolic dysfunction was lower than that in those without diastolic dysfunction (p = 0.005 and p = 0.013 by the log-rank test, respectively). In the univariate analysis, the patients with persistent AF and diastolic dysfunction were likely to have AF recurrences after a single AF ablation. The multivariate analysis indicated diastolic dysfunction as the only independent predictor of an AF recurrence after a single AF ablation (P = 0.023).ConclusionThe patients with diastolic dysfunction had a worse outcome of the AF ablation not only for a single procedure but also a repeat procedure.