The main CABANA trial of more than 2,200 patients found that the procedure was no more effective than drug therapy in preventing strokes, deaths, and other complications in patients with A-fib. But it did show that patients who get the procedure have much greater symptom relief and long-term improvements in their quality of life, including fewer recurrences of the condition and fewer hospitalizations than those who only received drug therapy.
The findings from the new analysis, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found a similar relative reduction of about 48% for the first recurrence of any symptomatic or asymptomatic episodes lasting 30 seconds or more. Researchers also found a 51% decline of symptomatic A-fib, and a 47% decline of any atrial fibrillation, flutter, or tachycardia after ablation.
They also found that A-fib burden declined when assessing using a Holter monitor, a medical device to measure heart rate and rhythm. While the burden was similar between both groups at the start of the study, burden decline the lowest for patients in the ablation group at both one and fives years. The study was funded by NHLBI.