Is routine echocardiography necessary after catheter ablation of atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia?
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to investigate whether pericardial effusion (PE) detected by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) was clinically significant and whether routine echocardiography was necessary after catheter ablation of atrioventricular nodal re-entrant tachycardia (AVNRT).


METHODS
A total of 202 patients with AVNRT were included in the study from three centers. The patients received basic electrophysiology-guided therapy, followed by radiofrequency ablation (RFA). All patients underwent TTE before and after RFA therapy.


RESULTS
The mean age of the study population was 46.2 ± 17.9 and 30.7% of the patients were male. Of these patients, six (3%) had postoperative PE, as detected by TTE. However, none of them had cardiac tamponade (CT). Four patients had minimal PE, while two had mild PE. Repeated TTE at one to three months showed resolved PE. No significant difference was seen among the patients with and/or without PE in terms of age, gender, the number of RFA applications, or RFA duration; however, significantly prolonged duration of fluoroscopy exposure was observed in the patients with PE.


CONCLUSIONS
PE was detected in 3% of the patients by TTE and associated with prolonged duration of fluoroscopy exposure. However, no patients with moderate or large PE or cardiac tamponade were found in the study. In conclusion, we suggest that TTE should only be performed in the presence of clinical indications following ablation of AVNRT.
Erzurum Education and Research Hospital, Erzurum, Turkey.
Ibrahim Halil
IH
Tanboga
Mustafa
M
Kurt
Tayyar
T
Gökdeniz
Turgay
T
Isik
Mehmet
M
Ekinci
Ahmet
A
Kaya
Enbiya
E
Aksakal
Serdar
S
Sevimli
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000009:adverse effects; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D010490:Pericardial Effusion / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013611:Tachycardia, Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014421:Turkey