Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation.

Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation services were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate a symptom-based clinician prioritisation scheme for waiting list management compared with patient-completed quality of life (QoL) scores. We also sought to understand factors influencing QoL, particularly the impact of COVID-19, on patients awaiting AF ablation, via a bespoke questionnaire.

Long-term outcomes after ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation: an observational study over 6 years.

Objectives: To address the limited long-term outcome data for catheter ablation (CA) of persistent atrial fibrillation (PeAF), we analysed consecutive ablations performed at our centre from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2010 and followed patients prospectively until January 2014.

Methods: Both arrhythmia recurrence and symptom relief were assessed. Follow-up data were collected from hospital records, supplemented by data from general practitioners and referring hospitals.