Impaired brain activity in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation assessed by near-infrared spectroscopy and its changes after catheter ablation

Although the prevalence of cognitive impairment and depression is higher in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) than in the general population, the mechanism has not been fully examined and impact of catheter ablation (CA) of AF also remains unclear. Recently, the development of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has enabled noninvasive measurements of regional cerebral blood volume and brain activity, in terms of cerebral oxyhemoglobin in the cerebral cortex. We assessed brain activities by NIRS, depressive symptoms by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and cognitive function by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). We then compared the results between AF patients (paroxysmal AF n = 18 and persistent AF n = 14) and control subjects (n = 29). Next, we also followed up persistent AF patients who kept sinus rhythm at 3 months after CA (n = 8) and measured their brain activities using NIRS, CES-D and MMSE after CA to investigate the associations of changes in brain activities with changes in both CES-D and MMSE. Our results showed that (1) frontal and temporal brain activities were lower in patients with persistent AF than both in control subjects and paroxysmal AF patients (P < 0.01), (2) frontal and temporal brain activities were improved in more than half of the persistent AF patients who kept sinus rhythm at 3 months after CA, especially in those who presented impaired brain activity before CA, and (3) improvement of frontal brain activity was associated with improvement of CES-D (R = − 0.793, P = 0.019), whereas improvement of temporal brain activity was associated with improvement of MMSE (R = 0.749, P = 0.033). NIRS measurement showed reduced frontal and temporal brain activities in the persistent AF patients, CA improved frontal and temporal brain activities in some of these patients, and associated with improvement of depressive state and/or improvement of cognitive function.