Clinical Study Denervation as a Common Mechanism Underlying Different Pulmonary Vein Isolation Strategies for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation: Evidenced by Heart Rate Variability after Ablation

Copyright © 2013 Kejing Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Backgrounds. Segmental and circumferential pulmonary vein isolations (SPVI and CPVI) have been demonstrated to be effective therapies for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). PVI is well established as the endpoint of different ablation techniques, whereas it may not completely account for the long-term success. Methods. 181 drug-refractory symptomatic PAF patients were referred for segmental or circumferential PVI (SPVI = 67; CPVI = 114). Heart rate variability (HRV) was assessed before and after the final ablation. Results. After following up for 62.23±12.75months, patients underwent 1.41±0.68 procedures in average, and the success rates in SPVI and CPVI groups were comparable. 119 patients were free from AF recurrence (SPVI-S