• Karl-Heinz Kuck, Boris A Hoffmann, Sabine Ernst, Karl Wegscheider, Andras Treszl, Andreas Metzner, Lars Eckardt, Thorsten Lewalter, Günter Breithardt, Stephan Willems, and Gap-AF–AFNET 1 Investigators*.
• From the Department of Cardiology, Asklepios Hospital St. Georg, Hamburg, Germany (K.-H.K., S.E., A.M.); Department of Cardiology-Electrophysiology, University Heart Center, Hamburg, Germany (B.A.H., S.W.); Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany (K.W., A.T.); Division of Rhythmology, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany (L.E., G.B.); and Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany (T.L.). k.kuck@asklepios.com.
• Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol. 2016 Jan 1; 9 (1): e003337.

BackgroundAblation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is an established treatment option for symptomatic patients. It is not known whether complete pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is superior to incomplete PVI with regard to the patients' clinical outcome.Methods And ResultsPatients with drug-refractory, symptomatic paroxysmal AF were randomly assigned to either incomplete (group A) or complete PVI (group B). In group A, a persistent gap was intentionally left within the circumferential ablation line, whereas in group B, complete PVI without any gaps was intended. At 3 months, all patients underwent invasive reevaluation to assess the rate of persistent PVI. Clinical follow-up was based on daily 30-s transtelephonic ECG transmissions. Primary study end point was the time to first recurrence of (symptomatic or asymptomatic) AF. A total of 233 patients were enrolled (116 in group A and 117 in group B). AF recurrence within 3 months was observed in a total of 161 patients (136 [84.5%] with symptomatic and 25 [15.5%] with asymptomatic AF); AF recurred in 62.2% of group B patients and 79.2% of group A patients (P<0.001), for a difference in favor of complete PVI of 17.1% (95% confidence interval, 5.3%-28.9%). Invasive restudy in 103 group A patients and 93 group B patients revealed conduction gaps in 92 (89.3%) and 65 (69.9%) patients, respectively.ConclusionsThis study proves the superiority of complete PVI over incomplete PVI with respect to AF recurrence within 3 months. However, the rate of electric reconduction 3 months after PVI is high in patients with initially isolated PVs.Clinical Trial RegistrationURL: http://clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT00293943.© 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.

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