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Europace Advance Access published online on November 18, 2009
Europace, doi:10.1093/europace/eup320
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Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal, Learned Society and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

CLINICAL RESEARCH

Efficacy of circumferential pulmonary vein ablation of atrial fibrillation in endurance athletes

Naiara Calvo {dagger}, Lluís Mont* {dagger}, David Tamborero, Antonio Berruezo, Graziana Viola, Eduard Guasch, Mercè Nadal, David Andreu, Barbara Vidal, Marta Sitges and Josep Brugada

Cardiology Department, Thorax Institute (ICT), Hospital Clínic, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170, Barcelona 08036, Catalonia, Spain

Aims: Long-term endurance sport practice has been increasingly recognized as a risk factor for lone atrial fibrillation (AF). However, data on the outcome of circumferential pulmonary vein ablation (CPVA) in endurance athletes are scarce. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of CPVA in AF secondary to endurance sport practice.

Methods and results: Patients submitted to CPVA answered a questionnaire about lifetime history of endurance sport practice. Endurance athletes were defined as those who engaged in >3 h per week of high-intensity exercise for at least the 10 years immediately preceding their AF diagnosis. A series of 182 consecutive patients was included (51 ± 11 years, 65% with paroxysmal AF, 81% men, 42 ± 6 mm mean left atrial diameter); 107 (59%) patients had lone AF, and 42 of them (23% of the study population) were classified as endurance athletes (lone AF sport group). Freedom from arrhythmia after a single CPVA was similar in the lone AF sport group compared with the remaining patients (P = 0.446). Left atrial size and long-standing AF were the only independent predictors for arrhythmia recurrence after ablation.

Conclusion: Circumferential pulmonary vein ablation was as effective in AF secondary to endurance sport practice as in other aetiologies of AF.

Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, Catheter ablation, Endurance sport, Recurrence, Athletes

* Corresponding author. Tel: +34 932275551, Fax: +34 934513045, Email: lmont{at}clinic.ub.es

{dagger} These authors contributed equally to the work.

Manuscript submitted 1 May 2009. Accepted after revision 23 September 2009.


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