Clinical Phenotypes and Atrial Fibrillation Recurrences After Catheter Ablation: An Unsupervised Cluster Analysis

Catheter ablation (CA) is a well-established treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). Data-driven cluster analysis is able to better distinguish prognostically-relevant phenotype clusters among patients with AF. We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis in a cohort of AF patients undergoing a first CA and evaluate associations between identified clusters and recurrences of arrhythmia following ablation. The study included 209 AF patients treated with CA. A total of 3 clusters with distinct characteristics were identified. Recurrences at 1 year occurred in 27.2% in Cluster 1, 43.2% in Cluster 2 and 60.9% in Cluster 3 (P < 0.0001). Cluster classification was independently associated with arrhythmia recurrences (HR 1.58, 95% CI 1.01-2.49, P = 0.046) after adjustment for age, CHA2DS2-VASc score, left atrial volume, type of atrial fibrillation and ejection fraction. To concluded, cluster analysis identified 3 statistically-driven groups among AF patients treated with CA with different risks for arrhythmia recurrences.