Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation

OBJECTIVE: Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation services were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate a symptom-based clinician prioritisation scheme for waiting list management compared with patient-completed quality of life (QoL) scores. We also sought to understand fact...

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Autores principales: Pius, Charlene, Ahmad, Hasan, Snowdon, Richard, Ashrafi, Reza, Waktare, Johan EP, Borbas, Zoltan, Luther, Vishal, Mahida, Saagar, Modi, Simon, Hall, Mark, Gupta, Dhiraj, Todd, Derick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9195158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35697474
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-001969
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author Pius, Charlene
Ahmad, Hasan
Snowdon, Richard
Ashrafi, Reza
Waktare, Johan EP
Borbas, Zoltan
Luther, Vishal
Mahida, Saagar
Modi, Simon
Hall, Mark
Gupta, Dhiraj
Todd, Derick
author_facet Pius, Charlene
Ahmad, Hasan
Snowdon, Richard
Ashrafi, Reza
Waktare, Johan EP
Borbas, Zoltan
Luther, Vishal
Mahida, Saagar
Modi, Simon
Hall, Mark
Gupta, Dhiraj
Todd, Derick
author_sort Pius, Charlene
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation services were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate a symptom-based clinician prioritisation scheme for waiting list management compared with patient-completed quality of life (QoL) scores. We also sought to understand factors influencing QoL, particularly the impact of COVID-19, on patients awaiting AF ablation, via a bespoke questionnaire. METHODS: Patients awaiting AF ablation were sent two QoL questionnaires (Atrial Fibrillation Effect on QualiTy of Life (AFEQT) and EuroQol 5D (EQ5D-5L)) and the bespoke questionnaire. At a separate time point, patients were categorised as C1—urgent, C2—priority or C3—routine by their cardiologist based on review of clinic letters. RESULTS: There were 118 patients included with priority categorisation available for 86 patients. Median AFEQT scores were lower in C2 (30.4; 17.2–51.9) vs C3 patients (56.5; 32.1–74.1; p<0.01). Unplanned admission occurred in 3 patients in C3 with AFEQT scores of <40. Although 65 patients had AF symptoms during the pandemic, 43.1% did not seek help where they ordinarily would have. An exercise frequency of ≥3–4 times a week was associated with higher AFEQT (56.5; 41.2–74.1; p<0.001) and EQ5D (0.84; 0.74–0.88; p<0.0001) scores. CONCLUSION: The QoL of patients awaiting AF ablation is impaired and AFEQT helps to identify patients at risk of admission, over and above physician assessment. COVID-19 influenced patients seeking medical attention with symptomatic AF when they normally would. Regular exercise is associated with better QoL in patients awaiting AF ablation.
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spelling pubmed-91951582022-06-15 Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation Pius, Charlene Ahmad, Hasan Snowdon, Richard Ashrafi, Reza Waktare, Johan EP Borbas, Zoltan Luther, Vishal Mahida, Saagar Modi, Simon Hall, Mark Gupta, Dhiraj Todd, Derick Open Heart Arrhythmias and Sudden Death OBJECTIVE: Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation services were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate a symptom-based clinician prioritisation scheme for waiting list management compared with patient-completed quality of life (QoL) scores. We also sought to understand factors influencing QoL, particularly the impact of COVID-19, on patients awaiting AF ablation, via a bespoke questionnaire. METHODS: Patients awaiting AF ablation were sent two QoL questionnaires (Atrial Fibrillation Effect on QualiTy of Life (AFEQT) and EuroQol 5D (EQ5D-5L)) and the bespoke questionnaire. At a separate time point, patients were categorised as C1—urgent, C2—priority or C3—routine by their cardiologist based on review of clinic letters. RESULTS: There were 118 patients included with priority categorisation available for 86 patients. Median AFEQT scores were lower in C2 (30.4; 17.2–51.9) vs C3 patients (56.5; 32.1–74.1; p<0.01). Unplanned admission occurred in 3 patients in C3 with AFEQT scores of <40. Although 65 patients had AF symptoms during the pandemic, 43.1% did not seek help where they ordinarily would have. An exercise frequency of ≥3–4 times a week was associated with higher AFEQT (56.5; 41.2–74.1; p<0.001) and EQ5D (0.84; 0.74–0.88; p<0.0001) scores. CONCLUSION: The QoL of patients awaiting AF ablation is impaired and AFEQT helps to identify patients at risk of admission, over and above physician assessment. COVID-19 influenced patients seeking medical attention with symptomatic AF when they normally would. Regular exercise is associated with better QoL in patients awaiting AF ablation. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-06-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9195158/ /pubmed/35697474 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-001969 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Arrhythmias and Sudden Death
Pius, Charlene
Ahmad, Hasan
Snowdon, Richard
Ashrafi, Reza
Waktare, Johan EP
Borbas, Zoltan
Luther, Vishal
Mahida, Saagar
Modi, Simon
Hall, Mark
Gupta, Dhiraj
Todd, Derick
Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
title Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
title_full Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
title_fullStr Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
title_full_unstemmed Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
title_short Impact of COVID-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
title_sort impact of covid-19 on patients awaiting ablation for atrial fibrillation
topic Arrhythmias and Sudden Death
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9195158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35697474
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2022-001969
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