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Atrial fibrillation

Permanent isolation of the PV antrum begets cure

The long-term effectiveness of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation is highly dependent on the endurance of ablation lesions over time. When ablation does not result in a permanent lesion, conduction recovery in arrhythmogenic structures previously targeted will almost inevitably lead to recurrence of arrhythmia.

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Figure 1: PV reconnection and AF.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. Di Biase (St David's Medical Center, TX, USA) for his contribution to writing and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Andrea Natale.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Santangeli, P., Natale, A. Permanent isolation of the PV antrum begets cure. Nat Rev Cardiol 8, 190–192 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2011.28

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