Background: The aim of this study was to identify the predictors of silent cerebral ischemic lesions (SCIL) after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) and to determine whether SCIL develop into cerebral infarcts in patients with 5 types of oral anticoagulants (OAC).
Methods and results: We retrospectively studied 286 consecutive patients (median, 67 years; 208 male; paroxysmal/persistent/long-standing persistent AF [LSP-AF], 147/90/49) who received periprocedural OAC and underwent MRI after the procedure. Warfarin (n=46) was continued, while dabigatran (n=47), rivaroxaban (n=89), apixaban (n=87), and edoxaban (n=17) were discontinued on the day of the procedure. I.v. heparin was infused to maintain an activated clotting time of 300-350 s during the procedure. Fifty-eight SCIL in 40 patients (14.0%) were identified on diffusion-weighted MRI. On multivariate logistic analysis, LSP-AF and dabigatran use were significant positive predictors of SCIL (OR, 2.912 and 2.287; P=0.006 and 0.042, respectively). Among 34 patients with 49 SCIL undergoing follow-up MRI, 45 (91.8%) of the lesions disappeared and 4 lesions developed into chronic cerebral infarcts. The SCIL with development into infarcts had a larger lesion diameter than those without (median, 6.55 mm vs. 4.2 mm; P=0.002).
Conclusions: LSP-AF and dabigatran use were independent risk factors for post-ablation SCIL in patients with uninterrupted warfarin and interrupted non-vitamin K antagonist OAC, but the majority of SCIL disappeared.