Patient selection
We prospectively enrolled 84 Chinese patients with symptomatic
drug-refractory AF who underwent AFCA and LAAC between March 2017 to
December 2018 in Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, China.
All patients were included with the criteria as: age > 18
years; symptomatic non-valvular AF refractory to antiarrhythmic drugs;
and with
CHA2DS2-VASc
Score ≥ 2 plus one of the following situations: (1) high bleeding risk
(HAS-BLED Score ≥ 3); (2) history of stroke or systemic embolic even
under OAC treatment; (3) intolerance to chronic OAC because of minor
bleeding caused by anticoagulation therapy; and (4) preference for LAAC
device implantation as an alternative to long-term OAC despite adequate
information. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of
Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of
Medicine. Informed consent was obtained from each patient.