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Background: Stereotactic body radioablation therapy (SBRT) has recently been introduced with the ability to provide ablative energy noninvasively to arrhythmogenic substrate while reducing damage to normal cardiac tissue nearby and minimizing patients' procedural risk. There is still debate regarding whether SBRT has a predominant effect in the early or late period after the procedure. We sought to assess the time course of SBRT's efficacy as well as the value of using a blanking period following a SBRT session. Methods: Eight patients (mean age 58 ± 14 years) underwent eight SBRT sessions for refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT). SBRT was given using a linear accelerator device with a total dose of 25 Gy to the targeted area. Results: During a median follow-up of 8 months, all patients demonstrated VT recurrences; however, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) and anti-tachycardia pacing therapies were significantly reduced with SBRT (8.46 to 0.83/per month, p = 0.047; 18.50 to 3.29/per month, p = 0.036, respectively). While analyzing the temporal SBRT outcomes, the 2 weeks to 3 months period demonstrated the most favorable outcomes. After 6 months, one patient was ICD therapy-free and the remaining patients demonstrated VT episodes. Conclusions: Our findings showed that the SBRT was associated with a marked reduction in the burden of VT and ICD interventions especially during first 3 months. Although SBRT does not seem to succeed complete termination of VT in long-term period, our findings support the strategy that SBRT can be utilized for immediate antiarrhythmic palliation in critically ill patients with otherwise untreatable refractory VT and electrical storm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several clinical risk factors and scoring systems have been proposed to predict arrhythmia recurrence after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. We sought to determine the ability of a new score to predict atrial arrhythmia recurrence after cryoballoon (CB) ablation of AF and whether the new score shows superior efficiency compared to previously offered scores. Methods: A total of 419 patients with paroxysmal AF who underwent their first CB ablation were included. Baseline clinical variables were analyzed, and independent predictors of recurrence at 12 months were used to develop the PAT2C2H score. The predictive capability of the new score was calculated and compared with the currently available risk scores. Results: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, left atrial dilatation, transient ischemic attack or stroke, congestive heart failure, and hypertension were independent predictors of recurrence. The PAT2C2H score which was developed from these variables had a better clinical predictive capability of arrhythmia recurrence compared to HATCH and CHA2DS2-VASc scores. With increasing PAT2C2H score and score severity (low, score of 0; moderate, score of 1–2; and high, score of ≥ 3), the proportion of patients with recurrence was increased from 7% (score = 0, severity = low) to 59% (score ≥ 3, severity = high). Conclusions: The PAT2C2H score may help to identify patients who are likely benefited most from CB ablation of paroxysmal AF and who should be monitored more closely for arrhythmia recurrence at 12 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]