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.