Cited by 183Atrial Fibrillation Management and OutcomesCardiac Arrhythmias and TreatmentsAcute Ischemic Stroke Management

Maintenance of sinus rhythm with an ablation strategy in patients with atrial fibrillation is associated with a lower risk of stroke and death

Hunter, Ross J, McCready, James, Diab, Ihab, Page, Stephen P, Finlay, Malcolm, Richmond, Laura, French, Antony, Earley, Mark J +12 more·2012·Heart

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) reduces stroke rate or mortality. METHODS: An international multicentre registry was compiled from seven centres in the U.K. and Australia for consecutive patients undergoing catheter ablation of AF. Long-term outcomes were compared with (1) a cohort with AF treated medically in the Euro Heart Survey, and (2) a hypothetical cohort without AF, age and gender matched to the general population. Analysis of stroke and death was carried out after the first procedure (including peri-procedural events) regardless of success, on an intention-to-treat basis. RESULTS: 1273 patients, aged 58±11 years, 56% paroxysmal AF, CHADS(2) score 0.7±0.9, underwent 1.8±0.9 procedures. Major complications occurred in 5.4% of procedures, including stroke/TIA in 0.7%. Freedom from AF following the last procedure was 85% (76% off antiarrhythmic drugs) for paroxysmal AF, and 72% (60% off antiarrhythmic drugs) for persistent AF. During 3.1 (1.0-9.6) years from the first procedure, freedom from AF predicted stroke-free survival on multivariate analysis (HR=0.30, CI 0.16 to 0.55, p<0.001). Rates of stroke and death were significantly lower in this cohort (both 0.5% per patient-year) compared with those treated medically in the Euro Heart Survey (2.8% and 5.3%, respectively; p<0.0001). Rates of stroke and death were no different from those of the general population (0.4% and 1.0%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Restoration of sinus rhythm by catheter ablation of AF is associated with lower rates of stroke and death compared with patients treated medically.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1136/heartjnl-2011-300720

Cites

28 of 28 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Hunter, R. J., McCready, J., Diab, I., Page, S. P., Finlay, M., Richmond, L., French, A., Earley, M. J., Sporton, S., Jones, M., Joseph, J. P., Bashir, Y., Betts, T. R., Thomas, G., Staniforth, A., Lee, G., Kistler, P., Rajappan, K., Chow, A., & Schilling, R. J.
Affiliations
  • St Bartholomew's Hospital (GB)
  • University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street (GB)
  • Barts Health NHS Trust (GB)
  • John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
  • Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (GB)
  • Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (AU)
Corresponding author
Schilling, Richard J
Venue
Heart
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2011-09-19
Volume
98
Issue
1
Pages
48-53
ISSN
  • 1355-6037 (ISSN-L)
  • 1468-201X
OpenAlex
W2053064155
Cited by
183
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 11
FWCI
16.00
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Heart (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
British Heart Foundation (PG/08/130)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Atrial Fibrillation Management and Outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Arrhythmias and Treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Acute Ischemic Stroke Management
Keywords
atrial fibrillation, catheter ablation, sinus rhythm restoration, stroke prevention, mortality, antiarrhythmic drugs, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, persistent atrial fibrillation, CHADS2 score, long-term outcomes
MeSH terms
Administration, Oral, Aged, Anticoagulants, Atrial Fibrillation, Female, Hemorrhage, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Case-Control Studies, Treatment Outcome, Catheter Ablation, Stroke, Kaplan-Meier Estimate

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review