Subclinical pulmonary vein narrowing after ablation for atrial fibrillation.

A trial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia. The recognition that paroxysmal AF may be initiated by abnormalities in the pulmonary veins (PVs) led to the development of catheter based radiofrequency ablation procedures to isolate the PV and prevent the recurrence of AF. Clinical PV stenosis is recognised as an uncommon but severe complication. Contrast enhanced three dimensional magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) readily visualises the PV and may detect changes in PV size before the development of clinical stenosis. We measured in detail the PV diameter, perimeter, and cross sectional area (CSA) in a consecutive series of patients who underwent CE-MRA before and one month after AF ablation.