Spectral Analysis of Electrocardiograms in Patients with Inducible Atrial Fibrillation after Catheter Ablation Predicts Sinus Rhythm Maintenance

BACKGROUND: We aimed to develop a novel predictive marker for atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence in patients with inducible AF after catheter ablation, based on power spectral analysis of baseline and postablation electrocardiograms. METHODS: Twenty-five patients who had undergone their first AF ablation procedure (pulmonary vein isolation and ganglionated plexi ablation) and had inducible AF after ablation were included. A 30-second interval of AF was chosen for each patient before and after ablation, and a periodogram of the atrial activity was computed. A ratio of the power in the dominant frequency to the power in the remainder of the periodogram (DFR) was calculated. RESULTS: Eight (32%) patients had recurrent AF at 1 year. The clinical and echocardiographic characteristics of patients with and without recurrence were similar (P > 0.05). After ablation, there was organization of atrial activity, evidenced by an increase in the DFR (0.28 ± 0.22 vs 0.53 ± 0.29; P = 0.001). The percent change in DFR before and after ablation (median [interquartile range]) was significantly higher in patients without AF recurrence (120% [30% to 344%] vs 3% [-27% to 66%]; P = 0.01). Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis demonstrated that a less than 16% increase in DFR postablation was able to predict recurrence of AF (area under ROC curve = 0.82; P = 0.03) with 75% sensitivity and 94% specificity. CONCLUSION: AF ablation leads to variable organization of atrial activity. Organization of atrial activity after AF ablation is associated with lower 1-year recurrence rates and may be used intraprocedurally after as a novel end point for AF ablation. Larger prospective studies are warranted.