Evaluation of rosuvastatin in preventing early recurrence of persistent atrial fibrillation after catheter ablation treatment

Objective To investigate the value of rosuvastatin in alleviating early inflammatory reaction and in preventing early recurrence of persistent atrial fibrillation(AF) after catheter ablation treatment. Methods A total of 84 patients with persistent AF who had received catheter ablation were enrolled in this study. The patients were randomly and equally divided into group A(n = 42, study group)and group B(n = 42, control group). Rosuvastatin therapy(10 mg/d, 42 patients) was employed in the patients of group A, while no medication was used in the patients of group B. One month after the ablation treatment, the serum lipid level, hs-CRP and IL-6, as well as the recurrence rate of all kinds of arrhythmia were determined. The preoperative and postoperative levels of inflammatory markers were also determined, the results were compared between the two groups, and its correlation with the early recurrence of AF was evaluated. Results One month after the ablation treatment, the levels of inflammatory markers, including hs-CRP and IL-6, in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group, as well as lower than those determined before treatment, while in the control group the serum hs-CRP and IL-6 levels became significantly higher than the preoperative ones. Sinus rhythm was successfully maintained in 29 cases(69%) of the study group and in 25 cases(59.5%) of the control group, while the difference was not statistically significant(P = 0.362). The patients of the study group were further divided into non-recurrence sub-group(n = 29) and recurrence sub-group(n = 13). The reduction in inflammatory marker level in the non-recurrence sub-group was greater than that in the recurrence sub-group although the difference was not statistically significant.Conclusion There is remarkable inflammatory reactions during the early period after catheter ablation. Rosuvastatin can effectively relieve the degree of inflammatory reaction, although it hasonly a slight effect in reducing the early recurrence rate after catheter ablation of AF. The greater the inflammatory markers levels are reduced, the lower the recurrence rate of AF will be, although the difference is not statistically significant.