The primary objective of this study is to determine the atrial fibrillation burden reduction, or absolute atrial fibrillation burden, associated with improvement in quality of life in patients undergoing ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with a higher risk of stroke, heart failure and deterioration in patients' quality of life and it also has great effect on health care resource utilization due to increasing morbidity and mortality. Catheter ablation has shown to improve patients' quality of life (QOL), even in those who undergo a repeat procedure, equalizing healthy population and lowering subsequent health care resource utilization. Success rates are usually based on an endpoint of total elimination of AF, typically absence of any AF recurrence \>30 seconds. While this is a high standard for clinical trial reporting, it does not necessarily measure the "clinical" success, since many patients will experience significant reduction in their AF burden with accompanying improvement in their functional status despite having ongoing brief recurrences of AF. This is a prospective non-randomized, single-arm, cohort study. 200 patients with persistent atrial fibrillation undergoing catheter ablation will be enroled. AF burden post procedure will be evaluated with continuous monitoring with an implantable loop recorder (ILR) to assess recurrences and AF burden. QOL will be measured using the CCS-SAF severity scale, SF-36 and AFEQT scales pre-ablation and at 12 and 24 months.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
200
Patients will undergo insertion of a LINQ ILR before the atrial fibrillation ablation performed according to standard clinical practice.
Southlake Regional Health Centre
Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
RECRUITINGAF burden correlated with change in QOL.
AF burden change and absolute AF burden correlated with change in QOL mesured at 12 and 24 months after the AF ablation
Time frame: 12 months, 24 months
Freedom of atrial arrhythmia
Freedom of atrial tachycardia/atrial flutter/atrial fibrillation (\> 30 sec) at 12 and 24 months after the ablation
Time frame: 12 months, 24 months
Economic evaluation
Change in AF burden correlated with change of health care resource utilization
Time frame: 12 months, 24 months
Incidence of silent AF recurrences
Total asymptomatic AF burden (Percent time in AF)
Time frame: 12 months, 24 months
Impact of antiarrhythmic treatment
Compare quality of life on and off antiarrhythmic medications using 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) scale: range 0-100, 100 is best.
Time frame: 12 months
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