Abstract 14633: Longer Period of Atrial Fibrillation Persistence was Associated with Higher Prevalence of Triggers from the Non-Pulmonary Vein Foci

Background: The recurrence rate of atrial fibrillation (AF) is relatively high after catheter ablation (CA) for long-lasting persistent AF (LLAF), because of the advanced AF substrate in atria. We assessed the possibility that the progression of AF trigger was also the cause of higher recurrence rate. Method; Consecutive 263 patients who underwent CA to persistent AF (PeAF) were included in this study. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the period AF persisted; PeAF-group (persisted < 1 year, n=132) and LLAF-group (persisted ≥ 1 year, n=131). Cardioversion were performed before procedure to determine the presence or absence of AF-Triggers, defined as atrial premature contraction initiating AF recurrence within 90 seconds after restoration of sinus rhythm (SR) reproducibly. We repeated cardioversion to distinguish AF-Triggers from pulmonary vein (PV AF-Triggers) and those from non-pulmonary vein (Non-PV AF-Triggers). We performed average 1.3 ± 0.5 sessions of CA, followed them for 20 ± 11 months ...