Can catheter ablation reduce the incidence of thromboembolic events in patients with atrial fibrillation?: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia, is a major risk factor for thromboembolic events, especially ischemic stroke. Catheter ablation is an effective method to maintain sinus rhythm in patients with AF. Although some observational studies have shown a relatively lower stroke rate after catheter ablation, whether catheter ablation can reduce the thromboembolic risk in patients with AF remains unclear. We aim to perform a systematic review to determine whether catheter ablation can prevent thromboembolism in patients with AF. PubMed, Embase, the Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library will be searched from January 2000 to the present for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomized studies on catheter ablation in patients with AF. Other relevant sources, such as the references and conference proceedings, will also be manually retrieved. All studies will be limited to publication in English. The primary outcome will be thromboembolic events, including stroke, transient ischemic attack, and systemic embolic events. Study screening, data collection, and study quality assessment will be independently performed by 2 researchers. Disagreements will be resolved through team discussion or consultation with a third arbitrator. The risk of bias will be appraised using the Cochrane Collaboration tool and the Newcastle–Ottawa scale according to the different study designs, and a meta-analysis will be performed using RevMan V.5.3 software. Th...
Source: Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Tags: Research Article: Study Protocol Systematic Review Source Type: research