ArticleFrontiers in cardiovascular medicine2026
Patient-reported and clinical outcomes after first-time atrial fibrillation ablation in older patients: a real-world retrospective single-center study.
Article in Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background and aims: Older patients remain underrepresented in studies of catheter ablation (CA) for atrial fibrillation (AF), and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after ablation in this population are limited. We compared real-world clinical outcomes and PROMs after first-time CA for AF in patients ≥70 years and 60-65 years. Methods: All patients aged ≥70 or 60-65 years undergoing first-time CA for AF at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet between 2017 and 2021 were retrospectively invited in 2022 to complete standardized questionnaires. The modified European Heart Rhythm Association (mEHRA) classification was used to grade symptoms, with change expressed as Results: Of 462 eligible patients, 344 were included: 132 ≥ 70 years (median age 73.0, 64% male), and 212 aged 60-65 (median age 63.0, 73% male). Both groups reported significant symptom relief one year after ablation (≥70: ΔmEHRA -1.42 ± 1.29, Conclusion: In this real-world cohort, patients ≥70 years undergoing first-time CA for AF experienced meaningful symptom improvement and no statistically significant difference in complication rates compared with patients aged 60-65 years, despite higher reported recurrence rates. These findings highlight the value of PROMs alongside conventional rhythm outcomes when assessing treatment benefit in older patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.