Reversal of atrial electrical remodeling after cardioversion of persistent atrial fibrillation in humans.

BACKGROUND Although atrial electrical remodeling has been studied extensively in animal models, the reversibility of this phenomenon after termination of clinical atrial fibrillation (AF) has not been demonstrated. We aimed to examine this important question of reversibility by using AF cycle length (AFCL) and coupling intervals of atrial premature beats after cardioversion as measures of atrial refractoriness. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured AFCL at the right atrial appendage and distal coronary sinus before attempting internal cardioversion in 39 patients with persistent AF. Patients were monitored by daily transtelephonic recordings after discharge and admitted rapidly for repeat internal cardioversion if there was spontaneous AF recurrence. Measurements of AFCL were repeated immediately before repeat cardioversions in the 17 patients who had recurrence of AF. There was an increase in AFCL from the initial cardioversion to that measured at the time of first AF recurrence at both the right atrial appendage (161+/-22 vs 167+/-26 ms, P=0.05) and distal coronary sinus (162+/-20 vs 168+/-22 ms, P=0.01) sites. The magnitude of increase in AFCL was positively correlated with duration of sinus rhythm before AF recurrence (r=0.524, P=0.001). Other measures of refractoriness (shortest coupling interval of atrial premature beats and directly measured refractory periods after cardioversion) also increased from initial to subsequent cardioversions. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate that changes in atrial electrophysiology associated with chronic AF in humans are reversible after cardioversion and that the extent of this reversal is dependent on the duration of sinus rhythm after cardioversion.