Association between non-ablated left atrial surface area and rhythm outcome in patients treated with cryoballoon and radiofrequency ablation

Figure 1. Study flow diagram. AF = atrial fibrillation; LA = left atrium; PVI = pulmonary vein isolation.

Figure 2. Freedom from atrial fibrillation recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation using cryoballoon or radiofrequency stratified by left atrial size (A) and atrial fibrillation type (B). AF = atrial fibrillation; LA = left atrium; LAAP = left atrial anteroposterior; PVI = pulmonary vein isolation.

Figure 3. Representative examples of non-ablated left atrial areas following pulmonary vein isolation using cryoballoon or radiofrequency in patients with a large left atrium (A) and a small left atrium (B). AF = atrial fibrillation; LA = left atrium; PVI = pulmonary vein isolation.

Figure 4. Computational simulation results estimating the left atrial surface area based on LA size (A) and atrial fibrillation type (B), along with the proportion of left atrial area reduction (C) following pulmonary vein isolation using either cryoballoon or radiofrequency. AF = atrial fibrillation; CB = cryoballoon; LA = left atrium; RF = radiofrequency. ∗P < .001. † P < .001 (estimated using the Wilcoxon signed rank test). Computational modeling was used to simulate the non-ablated left atrial (LA) surface area after ablation with both cryoballoon and radiofrequency in the same patient. As a result, each patient in this Figure has 2 corresponding values.

Figure 5. Relationships between non-ablated left atrial areas after pulmonary vein isolation and the risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence. AF = atrial fibrillation; CB = cryoballoon; LA = left atrium; PVI = pulmonary vein isolation; RF = radiofrequency.