Nikolaos Papageorgiou *, Rui Providência, Debbie Falconer, Tanakal Wongwarawipat, Dimitris Tousoulis, Wei Yao Lim , Anthony W. Chow, Richard J. Schilling and Pier D. Lambiase Pages 4469 - 4478 ( 10 )
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is a growing public health issue, associated with significant morbidity and mortality. In addition to pharmacological therapy, catheter ablation is an effective strategy in restoring and maintaining sinus rhythm. However, ablation is not without risk, and AF recurs in a significant proportion of patients. Non-invasive, easily accessible markers or indices that could stratify patients depending on the likelihood of a successful outcome following ablation would allow us to select the most appropriate patients for the procedure, reducing the AF recurrence rate and exposure to potentially life-threatening risks.
There has been much attention paid to Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) and N-Terminal prohormone of Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-proBNP) as possible predictive markers of successful ablation. Several studies have demonstrated an association between higher pre-ablation levels of these peptides, and a greater likelihood of AF recurrence. Therefore, there may be a role for measuring brain natriuretic peptides levels when selecting patients for catheter ablation.
Atrial Fibrillation (AF), ablation, Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP), N-terminal BNP, catheter ablation, recurrence.
Electrophysiology Department, Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, Electrophysiology Department, Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, University College London, London, Royal Free Hospital, London, 1st Cardiology Department, Athens University Medical School, Athens, Electrophysiology Department, Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, Electrophysiology Department, Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, Electrophysiology Department, Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, Electrophysiology Department, Barts Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE