Considerably reduced risk of stroke and death following ablation

[MarkS]

Two very interesting reports on the effect of AF ablation:

1. Stroke rates before and after ablation of atrial fibrillation and in propensity-matched controls in the UK ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/286...

This shows a risk of only a third for patients who have had an ablation (0.64% p.a.) compared with those who haven't (1.84%).

2. Mortality, stroke, and heart failure in atrial fibrillation cohorts after ablation versus propensity-matched cohorts ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/286...

This shows a risk of death following ablation of only around 10% compared with non-ablated patients.

I wouldn't say this is the final conclusion to this debate. The results seem almost too good to be true, particularly on mortality. Am I missing something? It is a Saturday evening and I've had quite a big glass of wine!

[BobD Volunteer]

Hi Mark yes it does sound good but I can see no reference to anti-coagulation or not post ablation and surely this is a vital part of the equation.

[MarkS in reply to BobD]

Yes you're right, Bob. I suppose they're taking one step at a time and anti-coagulation would have been another factor that would have muddied the waters.

I assume both groups (ablated and controls) were on similar anti-coag regimes as they were propensity matched.

[rosyG]

I was thinking the same as Bob re AC. One thing I think they find hard to study re AC is how long people are in range on warfarin- everyone assumes if INR is in range every 12 weeks it is the same all the time and of course it's only we who have self tested/adjusted doses that have really been able to keep a high rate of TTR- so the study would need to take into account what AC people used- but it's good to see a trend like this fr those who have had ablation