P-wave Analysis in Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Patients before and after Pulmonary Vein Isolation

This study aimed to assess common markers obtained from the surface ECG in order to analyze if they present significant variations after pulmonary vein isolation in patients with atrial fibrillation. 12 consecutive unselected patients suffering from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who undergone catheter ablation were included in the study. The surface ECG and intracavitary electrocardiogram recordings were simultaneously acquired previously and during all the ablation process. Severalmarkers were studied for the P-waves from V1 lead before and after the procedure, such as their average amplitude, duration, kurtosis, skewness, and amplitude or duration dispersion. P-wave duration as well as the amplitude dispersion index and kurtosis feature resulted to be significantly smaller when pulmonary veins were isolated. The use of these features allows to identify the disconnection of pulmonary veins in 91% of patients. This analysis would open a door for non-invasive identification of spontaneous reconnection of pulmonary veins, which is a major cause of recurrence of atrial fibrillation.