Does catheter ablation combined with guideline-directed medical therapy reduce the composite of death, LVAD implantation, or urgent heart transplantation in patients with atrial fibrillation and end-stage heart failure?
In patients with end-stage heart failure and atrial fibrillation, adding catheter ablation to medical therapy reduces the composite risk of mortality, LVAD implantation, or urgent heart transplantation.
Among patients with atrial fibrillation and end-stage heart failure, the combination of catheter ablation and guideline-directed medical therapy was associated with a lower likelihood of a composite of death from any cause, implantation of a left ventricular assist device, or urgent heart transplantation than medical therapy alone. (Funded by Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung; CASTLE-HTx ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04649801.).
Sohns et al. (2023) studied this question.