RandOmised Controlled Trial of STAR Mapping™ Guided Ablation for AF.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia with an expected rise in prevalence over the next decade. Beyond causing troublesome symptoms AF is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Catheter ablation is a safe treatment which is effective for paroxysmal AF but the success rate for persistent AF remains approximately 50% at 1 year. A new mapping technique, called Stochastic Trajectory Analysis of Ranked signals (STAR Mapping™) Method, has recently been developed. In a pilot study, localised sources driving AF were consistently mapped and ablated with excellent acute and long term outcomes. This trial will test the clinical effectiveness of this approach by comparing conventional ablation with pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) to PVI plus STAR mapping™ guided ablation. We plan to test this through a prospective multicenter randomized controlled trial including 177 patients.