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.