title: A 5-year clinical follow-up after duty-cycled phased RF ablation of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Catheter radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an effective treatment for symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). It has been demonstrated that the multielectrode pulmonary vein ablation catheter (PVAC) has favourable outcomes at 6-12 months post-ablation, but there are only few studies with a long-term follow-up.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed 77 consecutive PVAC procedures in our centre, from November 2007 to December 2012. RFA was attempted in patients with symptomatic paroxysmal AF (mean age 58.7 ± 9.8 years, 50 men (64.9 %). The ablation strategy consisted of circumferential pulmonary vein isolation (CPVI) with the PVAC system. A questionnaire was used over the follow-up period to assess the efficacy of AF ablation. Success was defined as freedom from AF/atrial flutter or atrial arrhythmia for a period ranging from 3 to 12 months or more.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-seven patients were included with paroxysmal AF. The mean duration of the procedure was 99.6 ± 26 min and fluoroscopy time 19.4 ± 6.8 min. Time of RFA was 22.4 ± 5.8 min. Acute complication rate was 10.4 % (the most frequent was vascular injury for 6 patients 7.8 %, 1 patient presented sepsis (1.3 %), 1 patient presented transient ischemic stroke). After a single procedure at a mean FU of 55 ± 11 months, 54/77 (70.1 %) patients were free of symptomatic AF.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These long-term results suggest that PVAC is an efficient system for CPVI of symptomatic paroxysmal AF.
authors.affiliation: Centre Cardiologique du Nord, 32, rue des Moulins Gémeaux, 93200, Saint-Denis, France. antoine.lepillier@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lepillier
authors.affiliation: Centre Cardiologique du Nord, 32, rue des Moulins Gémeaux, 93200, Saint-Denis, France.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Copie
authors.affiliation: Centre Cardiologique du Nord, 32, rue des Moulins Gémeaux, 93200, Saint-Denis, France.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lascault
authors.affiliation: Centre Cardiologique du Nord, 32, rue des Moulins Gémeaux, 93200, Saint-Denis, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Paziaud
authors.affiliation: Centre Cardiologique du Nord, 32, rue des Moulins Gémeaux, 93200, Saint-Denis, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Piot
mesh_terms: D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Atrial fibrillation ablation