STUDY PROTOCOL Renal sympathetic denerv d TRIALS

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia, with the estimated prevalence of AF being 0.4 to 1 % in the general population, increasing with age [1]. Hemodynamic impairment and thromboembolic events related to AF result in significant morbidity, mortality, and increase medical financial burden. So far, treatment of AF remains unsatisfactory. Pharmacological approaches for cardiover-sion and maintaining sinus rhythm in patients with AF ap-pear simple but are less efficacious. The major risk related to antiarrhythmia medicine is the considerable potential drug toxicity and proarrhythmic effects. Cardiac radiofre-quency catheter ablation of AF has developed rapidly in recent years, but the success rate still remains relatively low, especially in persistent AF patients. The higher recur-rence of AF is also a big challenge in short- and long-term follow-up. In addition, the complications associated with AF ablation procedures are likely to result in prolonged hospitalization, long-term disability or death. Hyperten-sion is the most important risk factor for AF, and increases the risk of thromboembolic complications [2]. In patients with AF, aggressive treatment of hypertension may retard or prevent the occurrence of AF. Recently, many clinical researchers [3-6] have verified that catheter-based rena