Clinical and heart rate variability feature analysis of pre-ablation AF patients leading to recurrence

• Published in: Journal of electrocardiology 2021-11, Vol.69, p.84-84
• Main Authors: Saiz-Vivo, Javier, Corino, Valentina D.A., de Melis, Mirko, Mainardi, Luca T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ablation; Cardiac arrhythmia; Heart rate
• ISSN: 0022-0736; 1532-8430
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2021.11.012

Background Ablation has become a widespread treatment option for patients with Atrial Fibrillation (AF). However, a significant number of patients show recurrence within 12 months. This study aims to compare patients with and without post ablation recurrence, determining the best features extracted from RR intervals of the 500 beats preceding the patient's most recent AF episode as well as some clinical features. Methods The RR intervals from 92 AF patients (56.3 ± 10.9 years, M 72%) before ablation were extracted from and recorded by an Insertable Cardiac Monitoring (ICM) system. Classical Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features were then computed including Mean, pNN50, pNN20, RMSSD, SDNN, TINN, TRI, Approximate and Sample Entropy, SD1, SD2 and SD1SD2 ratio, and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, Alphal and AJpha2. Potentially clinically relevant parameters such as AF type (Paroxysmal or Persistent) and lesion type (PVI only or PVI plus extra lesions) were also extracted. Two classes of patients, those with Recurrence, defined as existence of a recorded AF episode after a 3 months blanking period, and those with No Recurrence, were compared (Student's r-test for the numerical features and Pearson's chi-squared test for the categorical features). Results Out of the 92 patients that underwent the ablation, 43 (47%) were classed as No Recurrence and 49 (53%) as Recurrence. The extracted numerical features that were significantly different between the 2 groups (p-value