ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiac Rhythmology
Patient-reported quality of life and symptom burden improvement after catheter ablation in atrial fibrillation
MUHAMMAD ARSLAN UL HASSAN 1
Sana Mushtaq 2
Tao Li 1
Na Tian 1
Yin Jiao Ma 1
Xiu Mei Li 1
Zhen Yang 3
1. Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
2. Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
3. General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
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Abstract
Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a progressive arrhythmia that adversely affects patients' quality of life (QoL) and elevates risk of morbidity and mortality. Research has focused on assessing and improving QoL in AF patients; however, methodologies utilized to measure QoL are not feasible. The aim of this study was to assess QoL in AF patients and its enhancement following radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA), utilizing validated AF-specific tools. Method: A total of 127 AF patients who underwent index RFCA procedure at a tertiary hospital were prospectively enrolled in this observational study. The Arrhythmia-Specific Questionnaire in Tachycardia and Arrhythmia (ASTA) and Atrial Fibrillation Effect on Quality of Life (AFEQT) were utilized to measure QoL and symptom burden at baseline, 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year follow-up visits. Results: QoL demonstrated significant enhancement following RFCA across all scales and subscales of both ASTA and AFEQT questionnaires. Overall scale of AFEQT questionnaire indicated an improvement in QoL from a baseline score of 57.4 points to 87.1 points at 1-year follow-up with mean change of +29.7 points (95% confidence interval: 26.9 - 32.4, P <0.001). The mean baseline health-related QoL scale score of the ASTA questionnaire was 34.1 points which also significantly decreased to 2.0 points at 1-year follow-up, with a mean change of -32.1 points (95% CI: -36.3 to -29.0, P <0.001). Symptoms such as weakness, tiredness, chest discomfort, and depression, which affected over 80% of patients at baseline, decreased to below 13% at the 1-year follow-up. Paroxysmal AF and persistent AF subgroups exhibited comparable QoL according to the overall scale score of AFEQT questionnaire till the 3-month follow-up (P >0.05), but showed significant differences at 6-month (P = 0.033) and 1-year (P = 0.006) follow-ups. Conclusion: RFCA significantly improves the QoL and symptom burden in AF patients. Paroxysmal AF patients benefit more from RFCA in the long run than persistent AF patients do.
Summary
Keywords
arrhythmia, Atrial Fibrillation, Catheter Ablation, Quality of Life, Symptom burden
Received
12 November 2025
Accepted
16 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 HASSAN, Mushtaq, Li, Tian, Ma, Li and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Zhen Yang
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