Arrhythmia Type After Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Predicts Success of the Repeat Procedure

Background—The aim of the study was to investigate whether the type of arrhythmia recurrence after ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) has an impact on the maintenance of sinus rhythm after the repeat ablation procedure. Methods and Results—Included were 78 consecutive patients (82 % men; mean age, 6110 years; mean left atrial diameter, 474 mm) with persistent AF who underwent1 repeat ablation. The initial ablation procedure had consisted of pulmonary vein isolation with additional substrate modification (ablation of complex fractionated atrial electrograms [n63] or linear lesions [n15]). Patients presented for reablation either with persistent atrial tachycardia (AT) (group 1, n36), persistent AF (group 2, n37), or paroxysmal AF (group 3, n5). The primary end point was freedom from any arrhythmia off antiarrhythmic drugs 6 and 9 months after the reablation procedure. Estimated proportions of patient