Don't move during ablation of atrial fibrillation!

article i nfo Background:Restless patientisrecalcitrant during ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). Weaimed toassess the asso- ciation between patient movements during AF ablation and its outcome. Methods: We examined the body movement during AF ablation in 78 patients with the use of a novel portable respiratory monitor, the SD-101, which also has the ability to quantify the frequency of body movements. Results: The body movement index, defined as the number of the units of time with body movement events di- videdby therecording time(11.4 ± 6.5 events/h), wassignificantlycorrelatedwith the ablation time defined as the time from the first point of the ablation to the end of the procedure (1.2 ± 0.3 h) (r = 0.35; p = 0.0014) and a total radiofrequency energy applied (56.6 ± 17.7 kW) (r = 0.36; p = 0.0015). A multiple linear regres- sion analysis showed that non-paroxysmal AF (β = 0.25; p = 0.036) and the body movement index (β = 0.36; p = 0.0019) were independent determinants of the ablation time. The body movement index was similar in patients with and without recurrence of AF. Conclusions: Keeping patients motionless may be important to reduce the procedural duration of AF ablation. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland. Ltd All rights reserved.