Risk Assessment and Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation: Focus on Catheter Ablation

Dear Colleagues,

We are launching a Special Issue titled “Risk Assessment and Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation: Focus on Catheter Ablation”.

Catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation with pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) as the cornerstone has evolved as superior to antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) as initial therapy for patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF).

Despite its remarkable success and expansion, many questions and challenges remain.

Can first-line ablation be propagated as initial therapy? For the moment it is not clear whether first-line ablation is superior to drug therapy in persistent AF. Data on the prognostic impact of ablation are still lacking, making it essential to consider ablation in asymptomatic patients. Can ablation have an impact on hard CV endpoints?

What is the ideal timing of ablation given the impact of diagnosis-to-ablation time on the risk for AF recurrence? Controversy exists at the present time as to whether it is as early as possible or if a certain period of time between diagnosis and ablation can be accepted.

Beyond the known clinical and procedural predictors, how can we further improve patient selection to maximize the likelihood of a positive response to ablation?

How to assess the patient with an early versus late recurrence after ablation?

We need further advantages in optimizing the ablation strategy beyond PVI in non-paroxysmal AF patients and in redo-procedures after failed PVI with persistent PVI.

The optimal ablation strategy beyond PVI has not been clarified in the non-paroxysmal AF population.

How will the new kid on the block, pulsed field ablation, further evolve? How does this technique relate to its predecessors, point-by-point RF ablation and cryoballoon ablation? Will mapping become essential in PVI by PFA? Will PFA result in acceptable PVI durability and clinical success rates? What could be the advantages of PFA in more difficult substrates, such as persistent AF?

As you see, there is a lot to investigate further. We invite you to submit your high-quality research on any of these topics. We will accept original research articles and reviews that highlight new advancements in the field of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Prof. Dr. Yves De Greef
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• atrial fibrillation
• catheter ablation
• pulmonary vein isolation
• advantages
• techniques