Study design and population
This study was a single-center retrospective observational study. We
enrolled consecutive patients who underwent a first-time radiofrequency
CA of AF with the CARTO3 navigation system (Biosense Webster, Diamond
Bar, CA, USA) at Osaka Rosai Hospital between September 2014 to August
2019. The exclusion criteria were (1) patients whom we could not follow
up for at least 3 months and (2) patients with no available
pre-procedural echocardiograms or laboratory data.
We divided these patients into the two groups: patients who underwent an
AI-guided PVI (AI group) and those who underwent a CF-guided PVI (CF
group). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to adjust for the
patient age, sex, body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA), type
of AF (paroxysmal or non-paroxysmal), history of heart failure,
hypertension, diabetes and strokes, laboratory findings including the
estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and B-type natriuretic
peptide (BNP), and echocardiography parameters including the left
ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and (left atrium) LA diameter.
After the PSM, we compared the incidence of ERATs and late reconnection
rate of isolated PVs during second session between AI and CF groups.
Additionally, we performed univariate and multivariate analyses to
examine the clinical factors correlated with the incidence of ERAT.
This study was approved by the local ethics committee (approved number:
2020-29). All patients gave their informed consent for the CA procedure.