Abstract 15504: Time Course of Improvement of Diastolic Cardiac Function After Pulmonary Vein Isolation

Abstract

Background: Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is an established method of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). It has been reported that maintenance of sinus rhythm improves diastolic cardiac function in the patients with normal ejection fraction (EF). However, it is unknown the time course of improvement of diastolic cardiac function after PVI. Methods: We enrolled 87 patients who underwent PVI for PAF and received echocardiography before and 6-month/12-month after PVI. We evaluated left ventricular diastolic dimension, EF, left atrial dimension, EF, mitral early diastolic flow velocity (E), late diastolic flow velocity (A), ratio of early diastolic transmitral flow velocity to mitral annular velocity (E/e’), deceleration time (DcT) by the echocardiography and compared the ratio of pre to 6-mounth after PVI and of 6-mounth to 12-mounth after PVI for each parameter between success group (sinus rhythm≧1year) and recurrence group. Results: E/e’ ratio decreased at 6-months after PVI in success group (62patients) than recurrence group (25patients) (0.4334±0.3584% versus 0.0369±0.1169%, p=0.01) (table) but there were no significant differences in the other analyses. In addition there were no significant differences among 6-mounth to 12-mounth parameter. Conclusion: Diastolic cardiac function, especially E/e’, can improve in the early phase (within 6 months) if the patients maintained sinus rhythm after PVI.Early follow-up of diastolic function may play an important role to find recurrence of AF.