Temporal trends in the utilization, referral patterns, and complications of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in the Netherlands, 2013-2021
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Over the past decade, atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation technologies have evolved, operator experience has improved, and indications for referral to AF ablation has expanded. A recent population-level assessment is warranted to assess the impact of these changes on trends in the utilization, referrals, and adverse events (AEs) of AF ablation. Purpose Our aim was to describe temporal trends in the population-level incidence, patients referred, and AEs of AF ablation in the Netherlands from 2013 to 2021. Methods Temporal trend analyses were conducted using the AF ablation population in the Netherlands Heart Registration and included all consecutive patients treated with catheter ablation for AF between 2013 and 2021 at 16 hospitals in the Netherlands. Annual crude, sex- and age-standardized incidence rates of AF ablation were calculated. Poisson regression models with robust variances were used to evaluate trends in the incidence of AF ablation. Trends in patient characteristics, AEs, and repeat ablations over the study period were evaluated with ANOVA tests. Results Between 2013 and 2021, 37,538 AF ablations were performed in the Netherlands, of which 27,027 (72.0%) were index ablations. Repeat ablations (10,511 procedures) were performed within a median time to repeat ablation of 1 (IQR 1-2) year. AF ablation patients were a median age 63 (IQR 56-69) years, 32.8% women, 70.7% had paroxysmal AF, and median CHA2DS2-VASC score was 1 (IQR 1-2). Most patients underwent radiofrequency ablation (55.4%), followed by cryoballoon (33.4%), PVAC (0.6%), pulse-field (0.3%), laser balloon ablation (0.1%), and other (0.1%) (10.1% missing). Over the 9-year period, there was a statistically significant increase in index [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.07 (95% CI 1.05-1.08)] and repeat [IRR 1.09 (95% CI 1.05-1.12)] ablations from 2013 to 2021 (Figure 1). The annual sex-standardized incidence rates of AF ablations were approximately double for men compared to women throughout follow-up (Figure 2). In recent years, AF ablation patients had more persistent AF, higher CHA2DS2-VASC scores, and lower LVEF (p<0.05 for all). Minor vascular AEs within 30 days were the most frequent AE of AF ablation (1.1%), followed by phrenic nerve paralysis (0.6%), in-hospital bleeding (0.6%), cardiac tamponade (0.5%), thrombosis (0.3%), major vascular AEs (0.2%) and all-cause mortality (0.1%). Incidence of most AEs remained stable over time (p>0.05 for all). CONCLUSION In the Netherlands, the utilization of AF ablation increased by 7% from 2013 to 2021. In recent years, populations referred for AF ablation were increasingly older, had more persistent AF, higher CHA2DS2-VASC scores, and lower LVEF; however, men remained twice as likely to undergo AF ablation compared to women. Reasons for the lower rate of AF ablation among women requires further investigation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".