Regional E/e′ index on echocardiography predicts atrial fibrillation recurrence following catheter ablation

Background The discriminative accuracy of regional E/e′ indexes has yet to be clearly established in predicting atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence following catheter ablation. Few studies have proposed and validated a clinically useful threshold of regional E/e′ ratios for predicting recurrence after ablation. Hence, we sought to perform a comprehensive analysis of regional E/e′ ratios for predicting AF recurrence after the procedure. Methods Data were retrospectively screened from 914 patients with nonvalvular AF. The incidence of AF recurrence was recorded during the follow-up period of 36 months after the procedure. Regional E/e′ ratios on echocardiography were obtained and analyzed to assess the association of regional E/e′ ratios with recurrence. Results Of 784 patients beyond the first three months blanking period, 209 (26.7%) cases experienced AF recurrence. The lateral E/e′ ratio was higher in patients with AF recurrence compared to those with maintenance of sinus rhythm together with septal E/e′ ratio. There was no collinearity between the two regional E/e′ ratios. Further analysis confirmed the lateral E/e′ ratio as an independent predictor of the postprocedural recurrence; whereas the septal E/e′ ratio failed to predict recurrence independently. It was identified that the lateral E/e′ ratio appeared an incremental discriminatory performance with an optimal cut-off value ≥ 10.8 to predict AF recurrence. Conclusion The lateral E/e′ ratio might have superiority over septal E/e′ ratio as a valuable predictor for AF recurrence following ablation. Furthermore, the lateral E/e′ ratio ≥ 10.8 appeared a good discriminatory performance in predicting recurrence after the therapeutic intervention.