Fehmi Keçe

Cerebral Embolism during Atrial Fibrillation Ablation 83 3 Figure 4. Example of transcranial Doppler recordings. The procedure was divided in a pre-ablation, ablation and post-ablation phase. In the pre-ablation phase, contrast venography and catheter manipulation were associated with MES detection. This was more present in the TC group due to the additional mapping procedure. During the ablation phase, showers of MES were seen with the PVAC-Gold catheter during the RF applications. In the post-ablation phase, low MES numbers were seen for both catheters. 3.3.5 Parameters of Coagulation Ablation with both catheters induced a pro-coagulant state. This was observed by an increase in D-dimer with no significant difference between the groups (Supplementary table C). In addition, fibrinogen and prothrombin fragment F1+2 were slightly lower during the procedure while Von Willebrand factor was elevated post-ablation. No differences in activation of coagulation were observed between the two catheters. 3.3.6 Neuropsychological Assessment 3.3.6.1 Study Group No significant differences in test performance were observed between the PVAC-Gold and the Thermocool group for all cognitive domains (Supplementary table D). For both groups, an increase in the Groninger Intelligence Test-2 results, in memory functioning, executive