AF in HD patients
Takigawa et al. reported the AF recurrence free rate at one year after the first RFA session for PAF in HD patients was 42.3%, and the one-year outcome after the final ablation was 64.7%.3In non-HD patients, it was 73.2% after the first session and 90.4% after the final ablation.3 Our results after the first ablation session for PAF were better than those reported by this previous study. One of the potential reasons could be that a non-contact force catheter was used in the aforementioned study. In the present research, we started using contact force catheters since 2016; this might be the reason for the AF recurrence in the previous study.
In our report, Arctic Front Advance or Arctic Front Advance PRO was used for CBA. The previously reported freedom from AF in the second-generation CBA (Arctic Front Advance) was better than that in the first-generation CBA (Arctic Front) at 15 months (90% in second generation vs 64% in the first generation).13Recently, a report that published on using CBA for patients with HD found that the freedom from AF at 12 months was 79%.14 Our result also supported that the freedom from AF in patients with HD after CBA might be better than RFA. Our report is the first to include PAF, PeAF, and LSAF. Our outcome was the composite endpoint of the recurrence of any ATA and the use of an AAD which was different from the previous report. 14Furthermore, our report is the first report which revealed that freedom from any ATA was statistically better in the CBA group than in the RFA group among HD patients with an AAD.