Regional difference in optimal determinants of acute pulmonary vein
reconnection following pulmonary vein isolation with high-power,
short-duration radiofrequency exposure in patients with paroxysmal
atrial fibrillation
Abstract
Introduction: Acute pulmonary vein reconnection (PVR) is associated with
longer procedure time and radiofrequency time during pulmonary vein
isolation (PVI). However, determinants of acute PVR after high-power,
short-duration PVI (HPSD-PVI) in the guidance with unipolar signal
modification (USM) remain unclear. Methods and Results: We evaluated 62
patients (age, 62±12 y; 45 men) with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation
undergoing USM-guided HPSD-PVI. A 50-W radiofrequency (RF) was applied
for 3–5 s after unipolar signal modification. In the segments adjacent
to the esophagus (SAE), RF time was limited to 5 s. Each circle was
subdivided into 12 segments. For each radiofrequency tag within the
circle, possible predictors of acute PVR, including minimum contact
force, minimum force-time integral, minimum ablation index (AImin),
minimum impedance drop (Imp-min), and maximum inter-lesion distance
(ILDmax) were assessed. Acute PVR was observed in 43 (7%) SAE and 21
(17%) other segments (p = 0.001). RF energy, RF application time and
bilateral isolation time were 28±8 kJ, 10±3 min, and 27±11 min,
respectively. Imp-min and ILDmax had the highest area under the curve
(0.69 and 0.68) and of all indices, and were the sole independent
predictors of acute PVR in segments other than the SAE and SAE,
respectively, after adjusting for other cofounders (odds ratio [OR]:
0.90 [0.85–0.95], p = 0.0003; and OR: 1.39 [1.11–1.74],
p=0.005). Conclusions: In HPSD-PVI, a non-negligible amount of acute PVR
was still observed, which was possibly dealt with an optimal target
value of impedance drop and lesion distance.