Healthy lifestyle and atrial fibrillation recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background/Introduction: Data on the relationship of a healthy lifestyle at the time of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation with AF recurrence is limited. Purpose We investigated the association of healthy lifestyle markers with AF recurrence after ablation. Methods In 1439 patients undergoing AF ablation at a tertiary university hospital, a lifestyle score was built. The score included categories of BMI, smoking, blood pressure, fish intake, fruits/vegetable intake, alcohol consumption and physical activity. A higher score indicated a healthier lifestyle and patients were grouped into tertiles. Follow-up included 24h-Holter ECGs at 3 and 6 months and 7d-Holter ECGs at 12 months. Survival analyses and Cox-regression models were used to assess associations of individual factors and score-tertiles with AF recurrence. Results Mean age was 61.5 years, 25.9% were female and 59.1% had paroxysmal AF. In 941 patients all lifestyle score variables were available: 129, 675 and 137 patients were in the low, intermediate and high lifestyle group, respectively. Over increasing lifestyle groups, patients were more often female (9.3, 23.3, 38.7%; p