3.1 Study characteristics and quality assessments
A total of 8 observational studies involving 914 AF patients treated
with CA met the inclusion criteria without exclusion criteria
identified.16,17,22-27 The scores of the included
studies assessed with the NOS ranged from 6 to 8, suggesting the quality
of them was eligible. The clinical characteristics of participants in
each study were summarized in Table 1. Of the included articles, 5
studies only enrolled participants with
paroxysmal AF, while both paroxysmal
and persistent AF patients were involved in 2 studies, with AF types not
mentioned in a study. Most of subjects (86.1%) underwent radiofrequency
ablation, whereas cryoballoon ablation was performed in the remaining
patients. The rates of AF recurrence varied between 17.9% and 49.0%,
with mean follow-up duration ranging from 3.0 months to 21.4 months.
Table 1 characteristics of the included studies and main
findings related to DC. *AF recurrence rate after repeated ablation.
Abbreviations: LAD, left atrial diameter; LVEF, left ventricular
ejection fraction; AF, atrial fibrillation; DC, deceleration capacity;
NOS, Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; NA, not available; CHD, coronary heart
disease; DM, Diabetes mellitus; CKD, Chronic kidney disease; CA,
catheter ablation; RF, radiofrequency; CB, cryoballoon; HR, hazard
ratio; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; CPVI, circumferential
pulmonary vein isolation; PVI, pulmonary vein isolation; ROC, receiver
operating characteristic; AUC, area under ROC curve; SSS, sick sinus
syndrome.