No abstract

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) frequently coexist.Hypothesis: To investigate the prognosis of catheter ablation versus drug therapy in patients with AF and SCAD.Methods: In total, 25 512 patients with AF in the Chinese AF Registry between 2011 and 2019 were screened for SCAD. 815 patients with AF and SCAD underwent catheter ablation therapy were matched with patients by drug therapy in a 1:1 ratio. Primary end point was composite of thromboembolism, coronary events, major bleeding, and all-cause death.The secondary endpoints were each component of the primary endpoint and AF recurrence.Results: Over a median follow-up of 45 ± 23 months, the patients in the catheter ablation group had a higher AF recurrence-free rate (53.50% vs. 18.41%, p < .01). In multivariate analysis, there was no significant difference between the strategy of catheter ablation and drug therapy in primary composite end point (adjusted HR 074, 95%CI 0.54-1.002, p = .0519). However, catheter ablation was associated with fewer all-cause death independently (adjusted HR 0.36, 95%CI 0.22-0.59, p < .01). In subgroup analysis, catheter ablation was an independent risk factor for all-cause death in the high-stroke risk group (adjusted HR 0.39, 95%CI 0.23-0.64, p < .01), not in the low-medium risk group (adjusted HR 0.17, 95%CI 0.01-2.04, p = .17).

Atrial fibrillation (AF) can be secondary to acute pulmonary embolism (PE). This study aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of new-onset AF on patients with acute PE. In this study, 4,288 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with acute PE were retrospectively screened. In total, 77 patients with acute PE and new-onset AF were analyzed. Another 154 acute PE patients without AF were selected as the age- and sex-matched control group. Adverse in-hospital outcome comprised one of the following conditions: all-cause death, endotracheal intubation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and intravenous catecholamine therapy. The patients with new-onset AF had higher prevalence of congestive heart failure, higher simplified PE severity index (sPESI), higher creatinine, and larger left atrium diameter. The incidences of adverse in-hospital outcomes were 10.4 and 2.6% in patients with new-onset AF and no AF, respectively (p = 0.02). Patients with sPESI ≥ 1 had higher incidence of adverse in-hospital outcomes than those with sPESI = 0 (9.4 vs. 0.9%, p < 0.01). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of sPESI and sPESI + AF (adding 1 point for new-onset AF) scores in assessing the adverse in-hospital outcome were 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68–0.93) and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.72–0.96), respectively. In multivariable analysis, sPESI ≥ 1 (odds ratio, 8.88; 95% CI: 1.10–72.07; p = 0.04) was an independent predictor of adverse in-hospital outcome. However, new-onset AF was not an independent predictor. In the population studied, sPESI is an independent predictor of adverse in-hospital outcomes, whereas new-onset AF following acute PE is not, but it may add predictive value to sPESI.