Study population
We performed a retrospective analysis of data collected from a catheter ablation database at the Nagoya University Hospital in Japan. This study was approved by our institutional ethics committee. We included a total of 35 patients in this study who were undergoing radiofrequency catheter ablation for persistent AF and baseline CARTOFINDER mapping between May 2020 and December 2020 at the Nagoya University Hospital. Six patients were excluded due to significant noise on unipolar electrograms that were difficult to analyze (n = 2) and insufficient mapping of the entire left atrium (LA) (n = 4). The indications for catheter ablation for AF were based on recent guidelines.2 Patient characteristics and examination data were collected from the patients’ medical records. Written informed consent was obtained from all patients prior to the ablation procedure. The study was performed in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.