Effectiveness of atrial fibrillation ablation in the presence of chronic myocarditis

Aim: To compare the effectiveness of interventional treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with chronic myocarditis identified by endomyocardial biopsy and in patients without myocarditis.Material and Methods. The study sample included 40 patients. Of these, 27 (67.5%) are men. The age in the sample was 49 (44; 55) years. The study included 25 (62.5%) patients with paroxysmal AF, 10 (25.0%) with persistent and 5 (12.5%) with long-term persistent. All patients underwent surgical treatment of AF using radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or cryoablation (CA). Endomyocardial biopsy was performed in 18 patients to verify the diagnosis. The follow-up period for patients was 12 months.Results. All patients underwent surgical treatment of AF, in 7 cases (17.5%) CA of the left ventricle (LV) was performed; in 33 (82.5%) cases RFA was performed. According to the biopsy results, signs of myocarditis were detected in 9 patients (22.5%). Focal myocarditis was found in 7 patients, diffuse - in 2. The effectiveness of catheter treatment in general was 72.5%, for CA - 71.5%, for RFA 73.5%. The effectiveness of AF ablation with the presence of detected myocarditis was 88.9%, without myocarditis - 67.5%.Conclusions. The effectiveness of catheter treatment of AF in patients with signs of myocarditis was 88.9% and was higher than in patients without signs of myocarditis.