Rhythm Control of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation in Systolic Heart Failure: A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Background And Objectives: Persistent atrial fibrillation (PeAF) with heart failure (HF) arguably constitutes the sickest subset of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients.

Methods: A systematic search was made in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases. Network meta-analysis (NMA) of PeAF patients with systolic HF comparing all-cause mortality, change in HF-related quality of life (QoL) and hospitalization due to heart failure (HHF) were performed among catheter ablation (CA) of AF, rate-controlling drugs (RCDs), anti-arrhythmic drugs (AADs), and atrio-ventricular nodal ablation (AVNA) using Bayesian random effect model.