Predicting Late Recurrence of Atrial Fibrillation After Radiofrequency Ablation in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: Comparison of C2HEST and HATCH Scores

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to investigate the risk of recurrence in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) after radiofrequency ablation and predict risk of recurrence using C2HEST and HATCH scores. METHODS: We retrospectively included 322 patients with AF from Second Hospital of Lanzhou University, and 261 patients were included in the analysis finally. They had AF and were admitted for radiofrequency catheter ablation. We compared the ability of C2HEST and HATCH scores to predict recurrence after radiofrequency ablation of AF. The predictive ability of C2HEST and HATCH scores for AF recurrence was estimated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). The difference in receiver operating characteristic curve between the two models was compared using the DeLong test. RESULTS: Of the 261 patients included in the analysis, 83 (31.6%) patients suffered a late recurrence of AF after radiofrequency ablation. The risk of postoperative recurrence of AF increased with increasing C2HEST and HATCH scores. The AUROC of C2HEST and HATCH scores in predicting postoperative recurrence of AF was 0.773 (95%CI, 0.713–0.833) and 0.801 (95% CI, 0.740–0.861), respectively. There was no significant difference between the two models in their ability to evaluate patients for postoperative recurrence of AF (DeLong test p-value = 0.36). Among the risk factors in both models, hypertension and heart failure (HF) contributed the most to postoperative recurrence after AF, and higher blood pressure and lower cardiac ejection fraction (EF) were associated with a higher risk of recurrence. CONCLUSION: Both C2HEST and HATCH scores were significantly associated with the risk of late recurrence after radiofrequency ablation of AF. Besides hypertension and HF contributed the most to postoperative recurrence after AF.