BACKGROUND Hemodynamic optimization during surgery is of major importance to decrease postoperative morbidity and length of hospital stay. However, conventional cardiac output monitoring is rarely used at the bedside. Recently, the plethysmographic variability index (PVI) was described as a simplified alternative, using plug-and-play noninvasive technology, but its clinical utility remains to b...

BACKGROUND Thoracoscopic pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and ganglionated plexus ablation is a novel approach in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). We hypothesize that meticulous electrophysiological confirmation of PVI results in fewer recurrences of AF during follow-up. METHODS AND RESULTS Surgery was performed through 3 ports bilaterally. Ganglionated plexi were localized and subseq...

AIMS A challenge of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in catheter ablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) is electrical reconnection of the PV. EFFICAS I showed correlation between contact force (CF) parameters and PV durable isolation but no prospective evaluation was made. EFFICAS II was a multicentre study to prospectively assess the impact of CF guidance for an effective reduction of...

AIMS Cryoballoon ablation has proven very effective in achieving pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). The novel Achieve inner lumen mapping catheter designed to be used in conjunction with the cryoballoon, serves as both a guidewire and a mapping catheter. To our knowledge, this is the first study comparing the latter to verification of electrical isolation with the 'traditional' circular mapping ca...

AIM The objective of the study was to investigate whether early pulmonary vein reconnection (PVR) is a predictor of late arrhythmia recurrence after a single ablation procedure for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). Further ablation was delivered to patients with acute PVR to test whether this strategy could reduce recurrences. METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred and forty-four consecutive pati...

BACKGROUND Patients routinely undergo transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) prior to pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in order to rule out the presence of intra-atrial thrombi. Cardiac computed tomography (CCT) is also routinely conducted prior to the procedure to determine cardiac anatomy. Although it has been demonstrated that CCT can also rule out intra-atrial thrombi, the use of CCT for thro...

Background. Correct volume management is essential in patients with respiratory failure. We investigated the ability of respiratory variations in noninvasive pulse pressure (ΔPP), photoplethysmographic waveform amplitude (ΔPOP), and pleth variability index (PVI) to reflect hypovolemia during noninvasive positive pressure ventilation by inducing hypovolemia with progressive lower body negative p...

Several clinically relevant outcomes post atrial substrate modification in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) have not been systematically analyzed among published studies on adjunctive cardiac ganglionated plexi (GP) or complex fractionated atrial electograms (CFAE) ablation vs. pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) alone. Out of 176 reports identified, the present meta-analysis included 14 rando...

Introduction: Point-by-point standard ablation using single-tip (conventional) catheter is the main current technique for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) but it can be challenging. A circular, multielectrode, mapping and ablation catheter (nMARQ) may provide faster PVI. Methods: We designed a randomized comparison between circular versus conventional PVI with the primary end point of reconnectio...

Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is now accepted as a cornerstone modality for the treatment of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) ablation (1). The technique has been started with focal pulmonary vein (PV) ablation of AF triggers or ostial isolation of the PVs (2-5). Nowadays, wide circumferential ablation of the PV antrum is the preferred approach (6). The potential role of different non-PV t...