{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]],"date-time":"2026-03-19T04:49:14Z","timestamp":1773895754414,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,28]],"date-time":"2023-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1690502400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Warsaw, Poland","award":["501-1-10-14-17\/20"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["501-1-10-14-17\/20"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>It has been suggested that cryoballoon (CB) ablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) may lead to more extensive left atrial (LA) injury than radiofrequency (RF) ablation; however, results are conflicting. We sought to address this issue using modern echocardiographic techniques estimating the LA function after successful CB and RF ablation for PAF. A total of 90 patients (66% males, mean age 57 \u00b1 10 years) successfully treated (no AF recurrences confirmed in serial 4\u20137 day ECG Holter monitoring) with RF (51%) or CB (49%) ablation for PAF were retrospectively studied. Echocardiography with speckle tracking (STE) was performed before and 12 months after the procedure. The peak longitudinal LA strain (LAS) and strain rate (LASR) during the reservoir (r), conduit (cd), and contraction (ct) phases were measured in sinus rhythm. Analysis of covariance was applied to compare changes in the echocardiographic parameters over time with the baseline measurements as covariance and the type of ablation as the factor. The parallelism of the slopes of the covariance was tested. The LA diameter decreased (38.3 \u00b1 4.1 mm vs. 36.8 \u00b1 3.6 mm, p &lt; 0.001) in the whole study group at 12 months after ablation. The LASRr and LASRcd increased (1.1 \u00b1 0.3 s\u2212\u00b9 vs. 1.3 \u00b1 0.3 s\u2212\u00b9, p &lt; 0.001 and 1.1 \u00b1 0.3 s\u2212\u00b9 vs. 1.2 \u00b1 0.3 s\u2212\u00b9, p &lt; 0.001, respectively) whereas other LA strain parameters remained unchanged in the whole study group at 12 months after ablation. In the analysis of LA function at 12 months after the procedure regarding the mode of ablation, the worsening of parameters reflecting LA compliance was observed in patients with better pre-served baseline values in the CB ablation subgroup. For baseline LAScd &gt;28%, the difference \u0394CB \u2212 \u0394RF was \u22127.6 (11.7; \u22123.4), p &lt; 0.001, and for baseline LAScd &gt;16%, \u0394CB \u2212 \u0394RF was \u22121.8 (\u22123.2; \u22120.4), p = 0.014. The traditional Doppler-derived parameter e\u2032 showed the same trend\u2014for baseline e\u2032 \u226512 cm\/s, \u0394CB \u2212 \u0394RF was \u22121.7 (\u22122.8; \u22120.6), p = 0.003. We conclude that worsening of parameters reflecting LA compliance was observed 12 months after CB ablation compared to RF ablation for PAF in patients who underwent a successful procedure and had better-preserved baseline LA function. This might suggest subclinical dysfunction of LA after the CB ablation procedure. The clinical significance of these findings warrants further investigations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm12154974","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,28]],"date-time":"2023-07-28T07:58:52Z","timestamp":1690531132000},"page":"4974","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Subclinical Dysfunction of Left Atrial Compliance after Cryoballoon versus Radiofrequency Ablation for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Ewa","family":"Pilichowska-Paszkiet","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Agnieszka","family":"Sikorska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8040-5109","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ilona","family":"Kowalik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Research Support Center, National Institute of Cardiology, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9687-8691","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Krzysztof","family":"Smar\u017c","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ma\u0142gorzata","family":"Sikora-Fr\u0105c","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3049-5182","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jakub","family":"Baran","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Roman","family":"Piotrowski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tomasz","family":"Kry\u0144ski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Piotr","family":"Ku\u0142akowski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Beata","family":"Zaborska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Grochowski Hospital, 04-073 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"373","DOI":"10.1093\/eurheartj\/ehaa612","article-title":"2020 ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European association of cardio-thoracic surgery (EACTS): The Task Force for the diagnosis and man-agement of atrial fibrillation of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Developed with the special contribution of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the ESC","volume":"42","author":"Hindricks","year":"2021","journal-title":"Eur. 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