title: Late thromboembolic events after circumferential pulmonary vein ablation of atrial fibrillation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Catheter ablation can restore sinus rhythm in selected patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), but its preventive function for thromboembolic events (TE) is still underdetermined.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively studied 520 consecutive patients with AF who were referred for circumferential pulmonary vein ablation. The incidence of late TE was investigated, and the predictors of late TE were identified from analysis of the basic clinical variables of patients with late TE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight (1.5%) patients experienced late TE during 28+/-8 months follow-up. When TE occurred, most (6/8, 75%) patients were documented with recurrence episode. The recurrence of AF was more frequent in patients with late TE than patients without late TE (75.0% vs 30.5%, P=0.007). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that all risk factors, including all clinical variants prior ablation and the CHADS2 score, were not related to late TE but the presence of recurrence was the only predictor of late TE (odds ratio, 5.542; 95% confidence interval [1.416-45.013], P=0.019).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrates a strong relationship between the recurrence after ablation and TE post-operation and supports the proposal that free of recurrence is an indication for discontinuation of anticoagulation after ablation.
authors: Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors: Hailong
authors: H
authors: Tao
authors: Changsheng
authors: C
authors: Ma
authors: Jianzeng
authors: J
authors: Dong
authors: Xingpeng
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: Deyong
authors: D
authors: Long
authors: Ronghui
authors: R
authors: Yu
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013923:Thromboembolism / Q000453:epidemiology*