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).