Characteristics of Incident Coronary Artery Disease in Patients Undergoing Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

Few reports have provided detailed characteristics of incident coronary artery disease (CAD) and its risk factors in patients undergoing ablation (ABL) for atrial fibrillation (AF).Patients undergoing ablation for AF with no documented CAD were retrospectively studied at our institution. Patients were divided into 2 groups: those in whom significant stenosis was detected incidentally on coronary angiography (CAG) performed at the same time as ablation, and those without. The detection rate and its predictors were examined.Of the 550 patients, 20 had incidental CAD (detection rate: 3.6%). We compared the clinical data between these 20 patients (ABL-CAD group) and the 530 patients who displayed no significant stenosis on CAG. In multivariate analysis, age, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-chol) were predictive factors (odds ratio: 1.08, 2.43, 1.58, 95% CIs: 1.01-1.14, 1.53-3.86, 0.92-0.99; P = 0.014, 0.004, 0.024, respectively) for identification of CAD. Multivariate analysis based on cut-off values from receiver operating characteristic analysis identified age, HbA1c ≥ 6.1%, and HDL-chol ≤ 49 mg/dL as predictors (odds ratios: 1.06, 4.04, 3.07; 95% CIs: 1.00-1.12, 1.58-10.3, 1.1-8.01; P = 0.04, 0.01, 0.021, respectively). The area under the curve was significantly greater for age and HbA1c ≥ 6.1% and HDL-chol ≤ 49 mg/dL than for age alone (0.810 versus 0.672; P = 0.005).Patients undergoing ablation for AF appear likely to have CAD if HbA1c is ≥ 6.1% and HDL-chol is ≤ 49 mg/dL.