Incidence and predictors of pericardial effusion as an early complication of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation: The Japanese Catheter Ablation Registry of Atrial Fibrillation (J-CARAF)

Abstract Background Pericardial effusion (PE) is one of the most frequent complications from catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). We assessed the prevalence and predictive factors of PE that require invasive treatment as an early complication of AF ablation. Methods The Japanese Heart Rhythm Society requested electrophysiology centers to register the relevant data of patients who underwent AF ablation during 6 months from 2011 to 2015. We compared the clinical profiles and the procedures of AF ablation between patients who had ablation-related PE and those who did not. Results Two-hundred-and-eight institutions reported the data of 8319 AF ablation sessions (age 63.4±10.7 years). A total of 414 complications occurred in 401 patients (4.8%). The incidence of invasively treated critical PE was 1.0% (n=85) of total procedures, while conservatively treated noncritical PE appeared in 95 subjects. When clinical and procedural variables were compared between patients who suffered critical PE and 8140 PE-free patients, deep sedation (p=0.030), impaired left ventricular function (p=0.031), and periprocedural warfarin (p=0.023) significantly increased the incidence of critical PE in univariate analysis. Use of 3-D imaging system (p