High-power radiofrequency ablation for ventricular tachycardia in patients with structural heart disease: one-year follow-up data from the multicenter prospective registry

Background: The outcomes of ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation in patients with structural heart disease (SHD) are not ideal. High-power radiofrequency ablation (RFA) may have a long-term beneficial effect in this patient cohort. Objective: To evaluate the safety, early and long-term efficacy of high-power RFA for VT and concomitant SHD in a multicenter prospective registry. Methods: Our study included a total of 63 patients (66,7% of them were men; median age was 61.0 [51.0-66.5] years) with ischemic heart disease and drug-resistant VT who were scheduled for RFA (50 W). Non-fluoroscopic 3D mapping systems were used for bipolar and activation mapping with standard settings. The safety end point included perioperative complications, such as death, hemopericardium, stroke, myocardial infarction, electrical storm, and vascular complications. The efficacy end points included VT non-inducibility at the end of ablation and freedom from VT at 12 months of the follow-up. The secondary end points were changes in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy, sonographic findings, and number of hospital admissions. Results: All patients underwent VT ablation under general sedation. One clinical VT was induced in 96.8% of the patients before ablation. After ablation no clinical VTs were induced (P function show_eabstract() { $('#eabstract1').hide(); $('#eabstract2').show(); $('#eabstract_expand').hide(); }