Cigarette smoking causes a worse long‐term outcome in persistent atrial fibrillation following catheter ablation

Introduction Cigarette smoking contributes to the development of atrial fibrosis via nicotine. The impact of smoking on ablation results in persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) is unknown. We aimed to investigate the triggers and long‐term outcome between smokers and nonsmokers in the patients with persistent AF after catheter ablation. Methods This study included 201 (177 males, 53 ± 10 years old) patients who received index catheter ablation, including pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) and complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAEs) ablation for persistent AF, retrospectively. Electrophysiological characteristics at the index procedure and long‐term outcome were investigated to determine the differences between smokers and nonsmokers. Results Baseline characteristics were similar between two groups. Pulmonary vein (PV) triggers were found in all patients in the two groups. There was a higher incidence of nonpulmonary vein (NPV) triggers in smokers than in nonsmokers (61% vs. 31%, P