Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation has been shown to be an effective treatment for AF, although our understanding of AF ablation outcomes until now, has been based on AF recurrence as a dichotomous variable. Reduction in AF burden, defined as the proportion of time that an individual is in AF during a monitoring period, has been already correlated to an improvement in quality of life and is likely a better assessment of success. Clinically, many patients may still have a few short recurrences of AF but feel much better. In addition, several studies have related higher AF burden with poorer health outcomes and a higher risk of stroke. Despite the growing understanding of AF burden, it is not clear yet which threshold of AF burden would be considered an appropriate outcome measure for AF ablation. Further investigations are needed to address that question. However, the reduction of AF burden seems to be a more accurate reflection of procedural success and a better predictor of prognosis and stroke risk than a single measure of AF.

中文翻译：

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心律失常负担对心房颤动导管消融相关结果和管理的重要性。

房颤 (AF) 消融已被证明是 AF 的有效治疗方法，尽管我们迄今为止对 AF 消融结果的理解是基于 AF 复发作为二分变量。房颤负担的减少，定义为监测期间个体处于房颤的时间比例，已经与生活质量的改善相关，并且可能是对成功的更好评估。临床上，许多患者可能仍有几次短暂的房颤复发，但感觉好多了。此外，几项研究将较高的 AF 负担与较差的健康结果和较高的卒中风险联系起来。尽管对 AF 负担的理解越来越多，但尚不清楚哪个 AF 负担阈值将被视为 AF 消融的合适结果指标。需要进一步调查来解决这个问题。然而，与单一的 AF 测量相比，AF 负担的减少似乎更准确地反映了手术成功，并且是预后和卒中风险的更好预测指标。