Clinical adverse events after catheter ablation
Among the 2737 patients with AF included in this analysis, 122 (4.5%) developed the primary composite endpoint, composed of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events after ablation. The primary events included 18 ischemic strokes (14.8%), 16 hemorrhagic strokes (13.1%), 7 TIAs (5.7%), 19 hospitalizations for heart failure (15.6%), 19 acute coronary syndromes (15.6%), 24 hospitalizations for other cardiovascular events (20%), and 19 deaths from any cause (15.6%). The overall incidence rate of the primary endpoint was 2.1 per 100 person-years.
The primary composite endpoint occurred in 72 patients of the AF nonrecurrence group (1.7 per 100 person-years) and 50 patients of the AF recurrence group (3.2 per 100 person-years). A Kaplan–Meier survival analysis indicated that the AF nonrecurrence group had a significantly lower cumulative incidence of the primary endpoint compared with the AF recurrence group (P = 0.001 by the log-rank test) (Fig. 2).