Why the study?
Does radiofrequency catheter ablation improve quality-adjusted life years and reduce costs compared to antiarrhythmic drug treatment in symptomatic atrial fibrillation patients not responding to AAD?
Does radiofrequency catheter ablation improve quality-adjusted life years and reduce costs compared to antiarrhythmic drug treatment in symptomatic atrial fibrillation patients not responding to AAD?
Radiofrequency catheter ablation is a cost-effective, and potentially dominant, strategy compared to antiarrhythmic drugs for symptomatic atrial fibrillation patients who have failed initial medical therapy.
RFA dominates AAD with more QALYs at lower cost in AAD-refractory AF; confirms cost-effectiveness from RCT data and supports broader adoption.
This study shows that the short-term improvement in atrial fibrillation associated with RFA is likely to lead to long-term quality of life improvement and lower costs indicating that RFA is cost-effective compared to AAD.
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Eckard et al. (2009) studied this question.
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