Re-recognize early recurrence of persistent atrial fibrillation

Few studies on early recurrence (ER) focused on patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). We aimed to investigate the characteristics and clinical significance of ER in patients with persistent AF after catheter ablation (CA). A total of 348 consecutive patients who underwent first-time CA for persistent and long-standing persistent AF between January 2019 and May 2022 were investigated. About 5/348 (1.44%) patients who failed to convert to sinus rhythm after CA were excluded. A total of 110/343 (32.1%) patients had ER, in which 98 (89.1%) were persistent and 50.9% occurred in the first 24 h after CA. Compared with the patients without ER, those with ER were more likely to have late recurrence (LR) (92.7% vs. 1.7%,