Introduction: The incidence and clinical outcome of pericardial and pleural effusion after cryoballoon ablation (CBA) or radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) of atrial fibrillation (AF) have not been fully investigated.Methods: A total of 60 patients with paroxysmal AF were treated with either CBA (n = 30) or RFCA (n = 30) groups, with assessment of serum troponin I level, left atrial pulmonary vein computed tomography (CT) angiography and echocardiography within 24 hours before ablation, and serum troponin I level at 12 hours, and chest CT and echocardiography within 24 hours postablation. Repeat chest CT was performed 1 month after the index procedure in patients with pericardial or pleural effusion.Results: With similarly distributed baseline characteristics, the CBA group relative to the RFCA group had postablation: higher serum troponin I level (13.48 vs 1.84 µg/L, P < .001); similarly high pericardial effusion rates on chest CT (80% vs 93.3%, P > .05), with chest CT yielding significantly higher detection rate than echocardiography; similarly high pleural effusion rates on chest CT (73.3% vs 80%, P > .05); and smaller maximum depths on chest CT cross-section of pericardial effusion (5.21 ± 3.37 vs 7.13 ± 2.68 mm, P < .05) and pleural effusion bilaterally (left: 4.16 ± 4.90 vs 6.96 ± 5.42 mm; right: 5.04 ± 4.46 vs 7.55 ± 4.95 mm, both P < .05). The effusions selfresolved within a mean period of 1 month.Conclusions: Both CBA and RFCA were associated with high rates of pericardial and pleural effusion, with RFCA yielding numerically higher incidence and significantly higher effusion extent, and chest CT significantly higher detection rates than echocardiography. K E Y W O R D S atrial fibrillation, catheter ablation, pericardial effusion, pleural effusion
RFW APs resistant to conventional catheter ablation might be due to unique anatomic AP features such as more epicardial course at the annulus level with atrial insertion distant from the tricuspid annulus. Electroanatomic mapping is helpful to accurately localize the atrial insertion sites of these APs and facilitates catheter ablation.
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