Baseline characteristics
The clinical characteristics of the transplant patients and controls are
presented in Table 1. All of the variables studied with respect to
demographics (age, gender and BMI), AF type, AF duration, medical
history (hypertension, HF, prior stroke/TIA, DM and CAD),
echocardiographic parameters (LA, LVEDD and LVEF), EHRA stratification
and medical therapy were comparable between the two groups. Transplant
patients had relatively higher
CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED scores than
the controls. The mean eGFR was 80.3±13.9 ml/min/1.73 m² in the
transplant group and 91.9±12.6 ml/min/1.73 m² in the control group
(P=0.007). The preoperative creatinine concentration was higher in the
transplant group than in the control group (88.4±22.8 vs. 74.6±14.7,
P=0.017), whereas the levels of ALT, AST, TBIL, DBIL, Hb and PLT were
comparable between the two groups.
The detailed clinical features of the transplant recipients are shown in
Table 2. The mean age at the time of ablation was 59.0±5.5 years for all
transplant patients, and the median time from transplantation to CA was
10.3±5.5 years. The mean duration of the AF episode before CA was
47.6±45.1 months. Males made up the majority of the transplant group
(n=11; 78.6%). Seven patients (77.8%) in the renal transplant
recipients and four patients (80.0%) in the hepatic transplant
recipients were male. Most transplant patients had a history of
hypertension (n=11; 78.6%). All patients in the transplant group were
on immunosuppressive therapy.