Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Ablation of atrial fibrillation with cryoballoon or duty-cycled radiofrequency pulmonary vein ablation catheter: a randomized controlled study comparing the clinical outcome and safety; the AF-COR study.
The urge to facilitate the atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation procedure has led to the development of new ablation catheters specifically designed as 'one-shot tools' for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy, safety, and procedure times for two such catheters using different energy sources. ⋯ Both catheters proved comparably effective and safe in achieving acute PVI, apart from the shorter fluoroscopy times achieved with the cryoballoon. At follow-up, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups regarding freedom from AF and clinical success. The QoL increased to the same levels as for the general Swedish population in both groups.