Fehmi Keçe

Cerebral Embolism during Atrial Fibrillation Ablation 79 3 3.3 Results 3.3.1 Baseline Characteristics Mean age was 59±9 years in the PVAC-Gold group and 62±9 years in the Thermocool group. The groups were predominantly male (66% and 57%, respectively). There were no significant differences in any of the baseline characteristics between the two groups (Table 1). Table 1. Baseline Characteristics. PVAC-Gold (n=35) TC (n=35) P-value Age (years) 59±9 62±9 0.157 Male gender 23 (66) 20 (57) 0.461 BMI (kg/m2) 26.2±3.5 26.9±3.6 0.392 LA diameter (mm) 39±7 40±4 0.282 CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc score 1.6±1.2 1.6±1.3 0.924 ECV last 12 months 8 (23) 12 (34) 0.290 Ejection fraction (>55) 35 (100) 35 (100) Antiplatelet drugs 3 (4) 1 (1) 1.000 Comorbidity Hypertension 16 (46) 18 (51) 0.632 Dyslipidemia 14 (40) 11 (31) 0.454 Diabetes 2 (6) 1 (3) 1.000 Coronary artery disease 4 (11) 6 (17) 0.495 CVA/TIA history 6 (17) 5 (14) 0.743 Values are mean±standard deviation or n (%). AF: atrial fibrillation, BMI: body mass index, CVA: cerebrovascular accident, ECV: electrical cardioversion, LA: left atrium, PVAC-Gold: Pulmonary Vein Ablation Catheter-Gold, TC: Thermocool, TIA: transient ischemic attack. 3.3.2 Procedural Details Procedure time and RF duration with PVAC-Gold were shorter compared to the Thermocool group Table 2). During the ablation, 99% of the applications were performed in 2:1 bipolar: unipolar mode. The ACT values before electrical cardioversion was always above 350 s, except in 1 patient in the PVAC-Gold group (327s).