The following is a summary of “Association of atrial mechanical dispersion with atrial fibrillation recurrence following catheter ablation: results of the ASTRA-AF pilot study,” published in the May 2024 issue of Cardiology by Knappe et al.
For people with symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) that doesn’t respond to drugs, getting rhythm control through catheter ablation is an important treatment option.
Researchers conducted a prospective study to explore if mechanical dispersion measured as the standard deviation of the time to peak strain (SD-TPS) predicts AF recurrence after catheter ablation.
They enrolled 132 patients with paroxysmal (88) or persistent AF (44) for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). Follow-up lasted 1 year. The left atrial (LA) volume, LA ejection fraction, SD-TPS, the global longitudinal strain of the left ventricle, and clinical factors (sex, age, AF type) were examined for their relation to AF recurrence.
The results showed a Kaplan-Meier graph indicating higher AF recurrence with SD-TPS exceeding 38.6 ms. Cox regression analysis showed that SD-TPS had the strongest association with AF recurrence with an HR of 1.05 (95% CI, 1.01-1.09, P=0.01) and HR of 1.05 (95% CI, 1.01-1.09, P=0.02) per 10 ms increase. In the additional analyses for the model, including the clinical variables age, sex, and type of AF with paroxysmal or recurrent AF, SD-TPS showed a trend after adjusting for covariates; the HR was 1.04 (95 CI; 0.99-1.09, P=0.09) per 10 ms increase. Investigators concluded atrial mechanical dispersion correlated with recurrent AF, suggesting its potential as a predictive marker.
Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00392-024-02435-0