Clinical outcomes after ventricular tachycardia ablation with or without induction

Figures

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  Figure 1. Short-term safety outcomes. Data were unavailable in the noninduction and induction groups, respectively, in 1 and 4 patients for 30-day rehospitalization, 5 and 7 patients for acute kidney injury, 6 and 10 patients for cardiac intensive care unit transfer, 23 and 40 patients for change in left ventricular ejection fraction, and 1 and 3 patients for time to discharge. A: Bar graph of categorical safety outcomes, labeled with the number (%) of patients experiencing each outcome. B, C: Box plots of continuous safety outcomes. The median is depicted by the central line of each box. The lower and upper edges of the box represent the 25th and 75th percentiles. The lower and upper whiskers correspond to P25 – (1.5 ∗ IQR) and P75 + (1.5 ∗ IQR). Dots represent potential outliers. Change in LVEF is expressed as an absolute difference. There were no significant differences between groups for any outcome. IQR = interquartile range.

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  Figure 2. Ventricular tachycardia (VT) burden before vs after ablation. Each patient is represented by a horizontal bar. VT burden in the 6 months preceding ablation is shown in blue to the left of the midline. VT burden in the 6 months following ablation is shown in red to the right of the midline. Fifteen patients from the induction group were excluded from the VT burden analysis: 7 who died within 6 months after ablation and 8 who lacked an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in the 6 months preceding ablation. Five patients in the noninduction group were excluded from the VT burden analysis: 3 who died within 6 months after ablation and 2 who lacked an ICD in the 6 months preceding ablation. A marked decrease in VT burden is seen following ablation in the overall patient cohort (A), as well as the VT induction (B) and noninduction (C) groups. Eleven patients (5 in the induction group, 6 in the noninduction group) underwent repeat VT ablation within the 6-month period following their first ablation. These patients are denoted by an asterisk in plots B and C.

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  Figure 3. Ventricular tachycardia (VT) recurrence stratified by induction strategy. The cumulative probability of freedom from first recurrent sustained VT is plotted as a function of time elapsed since VT ablation. P value for noninduction vs induction groups is derived from a univariable competing risks regression of VT recurrence.

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  Figure 4. Ventricular tachycardia (VT) recurrence, heart transplant, or death Stratified by induction strategy. The cumulative probability of freedom from VT recurrence, heart transplant, and death is plotted as a function of time elapsed since VT ablation. P value for noninduction vs induction groups is derived from a univariable Cox regression of VT recurrence, heart transplant, or death.