Do Elderly Patients with Atrial Fibrillation Have Comparable Ablation Outcomes Compared to Younger Ones? Evidence from Pooled Clinical Studies

Figures

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  Figure 1. Flowchart of study selection.

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  Figure 2. Forest plot of the freedom rate from AF between elderly and younger groups [6,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,29,30,31]. Comparison of the rates of freedom from AF between elderly and younger groups.

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  Figure 3. Forest plot of subgroup analysis of the freedom rate from AF between elderly and younger groups. Subgroup analysis of the rates of freedom from AF between elderly and younger groups. AF: atrial fibrillation; PAF: paroxysmal atrial fibrillation; RF: radiofrequency; Cryo: cryoablation; PVI: pulmonary vein isolation; PVI-plus: PVI plus linear and/or substrate ablation.

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  Figure 4. Trial sequential analysis of the rates of freedom from AF between elderly and younger groups. The results showed that the actual sample size (18,608) was smaller than the RIS (relative risk reduction, RRR = 35%; RIS = 25,240), and the cumulative Z curve (Z = 2.55) crossed both the conventional boundary and the trial sequential alpha spending monitoring boundary (TSA monitoring boundaries = 2.49). RIS: required information size.

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  Figure 5. Forest plot of the pooled rate of freedom from AF in the elderly group [6,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,29,30,31,32,33,34,35]. The line of equity refers to the pooled result of eligible studies in the forest plots.

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  Figure 6. Linear and quadratic prediction fit plot with confidence interval between the follow-up time and the rate of freedom from AF for the elderly. The solid gray line represents the linear prediction fit. The dotted gray line represents the quadratic prediction fit. The gray area represents the 95% confidence interval for the quadratic prediction fit. Each dark blue circle represents a sample. CI: confidence interval.

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  Figure 7. Forest plot comparing cerebrovascular events between elderly and younger groups [6,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,31]. The dotted red line represents the pooled risk ratio for cerebrovascular events between elderly and younger groups.

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  Figure 8. Forest plot comparing serious hemorrhage complications between elderly and younger groups [6,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,26,27,28,29,30,31]. The dotted red line represents the pooled risk ratio for serious hemorrhage complications between elderly and younger groups.

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  Figure 9. Forest plot comparing all-cause death between elderly and younger groups [6,12,13,14,16,17,18,19,22,23,24,25,27,29]. The dotted red line represents the pooled risk ratio for all-cause death between elderly and younger groups.

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  Figure 10. Forest plot comparing phrenic nerve injury between elderly and younger groups [6,11,12,13,16,17,19,21,22,23,28,29]. The dotted red line represents the pooled risk ratio for phrenic nerve injury between elderly and younger groups.