Determinants of immediate success for catheter ablation of atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia in patients without junctional rhythm.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

To investigate the independent predictors of immediate success for atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) catheter ablation in patients without accelerated junctional rhythm (JR).

METHODS

The study included 172 consecutive patients with AVNRT undergoing slow pathway ablation that had no JR during the radiofrequency pulses. The diagnosis of AVNRT was made using the classic criteria of documenting antegrade atrio-His or retrograde ventriculoatrial (VA) jump and arrhythmia induction. Successful ablation was defined as the inability to induce tachycardia with and without the infusion of isoproterenol and the absence of more than one AV-nodal echo.

RESULTS

The clinical independent predictors of successful ablation in the studied patients were identified as age ≥ 60, ablation-site location (mid-septal rather than posteroseptal), and baseline heart rate ≥ 100 beat per minute. The predictive performance of the risk model was very good and the calibration of the risk model was acceptable.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggests predictive factors that can be used to gauge procedural success in AVNRT patients without accelerated JR during ablation.