Statistical analysis
Propensity score matching was performed to reduce confounding in the comparison of the two groups. Age, gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, previous stroke, congestive heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction, left atrial diameter, procedure date, and CHA2DS2-VASc score were matched between the two groups. Matching was performed using the nearest neighbor matching protocol (matching ratio of 1 to 4 without replacement) and a caliper width of 0.2.
Descriptive statistics were presented as means and standard deviation (SD) for continuous variables. Categorical variables were presented as numbers and proportions. Continuous variables in normal distribution were compared with Student’s t-test or Wilcoxon test if not in normal distribution. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to derive the event rate and plot the time-survival curve. The unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association between CLBBB and clinical outcomes. All P values were 2-sided with a significance threshold of <0.05. All statistical analysis was performed using R Software version 4.1.0 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria).