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Europace Advance Access originally published online on July 10, 2006
Europace 2006 8(8):559-565; doi:10.1093/europace/eul072
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© The European Society of Cardiology 2006. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

ATRIAL FIBRILLATION

Atrial fibrillation signal organization predicts sinus rhythm maintenance in patients undergoing cardioversion of atrial fibrillation

Fredrik Holmqvist1,*, Martin Stridh2, Johan E.P. Waktare3, Anders Roijer1, Leif Sörnmo2, Pyotr G. Platonov1 and Carl J. Meurling1

1 Department of Cardiology, Lund University Hospital, SE-221 85 Lund, Sweden; 2 Department of Electroscience, Lund Institute of Technology, PO Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden; 3 The Cardiothoracic Centre, Liverpool NHS Trust, Thomas Drive, Liverpool L143PE, UK

Aims Electrical remodelling is believed to influence the outcome following cardioversion of patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the results in clinical studies are conflicting. We assessed the hypothesis that non-invasively obtained atrial fibrillatory organization can be used as a predictor of sinus rhythm (SR) maintenance.

Methods and results Fifty-four patients (37 men, age 67±11) with persistent AF (median duration 3 months, 1 day to 18 months), without anti-arrhythmic drug treatment, referred for cardioversion were studied. Assessment of the atrial harmonic decay was made by time–frequency analysis of the ECG. At 1-month follow-up, 30 patients had relapsed into AF. The mean harmonic decay at inclusion of those relapsing into AF was 1.5±0.3 compared with 1.1±0.3 among those maintaining SR (P=0.0004). Using a cut-off value of harmonic decay ≤1.5 to determine suitability for cardioversion would have resulted in a clinically useful discriminator (sensitivity=92%, specificity=47%, PPV=59%, and NPV=88%).

Conclusion This study shows that patients relapsing rapidly to AF have a higher harmonic decay than those maintaining SR. The degree of AF signal organization (harmonic decay) was a superior discriminator to other patient parameters. Further studies are needed to confirm these results and to determine the electrophysiological correlate of harmonic decay.

Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, Electrophysiology—Clinical, Electrocardiogram, Non-invasive risk assessment tests, Harmonic decay, Cardioversion

* Corresponding author. Tel: +46 46 173518; fax: +46 46 157857. E-mail address: fredrik.holmqvist{at}med.lu.se


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