Publication Date

10-1-2015

Journal

The Texas Heart Journal

DOI

10.14503/THIJ-14-4572

PMID

26504435

Publication Date(s)

October 2015

Language

English

PMCID

PMC4591881

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

10-1-2015

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-Print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Ablation, anticoagulants/therapeutic use, atrial appendage/surgery, atrial fibrillation/surgery, atrial function, left, catheter ablation, cryosurgery/methods, heart atria/surgery, myocardial contraction, prospective studies, sinus rhythm, stroke/prevention & control, thromboembolism, treatment outcome

Abstract

The customary recommendation is that oral anticoagulation be withdrawn a few months after cryoablation for atrial fibrillation, independently of left atrial mechanical contraction in patients in sinus rhythm. Recently, a 5-fold increase in stroke has been described in sinus-rhythm patients who lack atrial mechanical contraction. One aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of oral anticoagulation in preventing postoperative stroke in such patients.

This prospective study divided 154 sinus-rhythm patients into 2 groups, depending on the presence (108 patients) or absence (46 patients) of left atrial mechanical contraction at 6 months after surgery, and monitored them annually for 5 years. Those without left atrial contraction were maintained on acenocumarol. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of ischemic stroke.

The median follow-up period was 29 ± 16 months; 4 patients (2.5%), all belonging to the group with preserved atrial contraction, had ischemic stroke; the group of patients without left atrial contraction had no episodes of stroke during follow-up. Logistic binary regression analyses showed no evidence of factors independently predictive of stroke.

Among anticoagulated patients in sinus rhythm without left atrial contraction, we found the incidence of stroke to be zero. In a small, nonrandomized group such as this, we cannot discount the element of chance, yet we suggest that maintaining anticoagulation might lower the incidence of stroke in this population.

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