Treatment Of Atrial Fibrillation In Preserved Cardiac Function Heart Failure

This is a prospective pilot study utilizing a randomized comparative sequential evaluation of these two therapeutic approaches in two consecutive phases: Phase 1 will examine an initial catheter ablation strategy versus an initial antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) therapy strategy for safety and efficacy in patients with atrial fibrillation with preserved systolic cardiac function, heart failure hospitalization in the past year or one or more documented HF events. Phase 2 will examine optimized rhythm control therapy with and without wireless pulmonary artery pressure hemodynamic monitoring for HF therapy optimization in the same patients as in Phase 1 with documented atrial fibrillation with preserved systolic cardiac function, prior HF hospitalization and class III heart failure. This is an open label two phase study in which patients will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either ablation or AAD with a pilot phase 1 that will consist to 100 patients enrolled at 10 centers. They will be followed for a minimum of 6 months, after a three month blanking period, for event rates of the primary endpoint as well as safety and efficacy. Phase 2 will randomize patients completing Phase 1 to hemodynamic monitoring with a wireless pulmonary artery sensor insertion and guided HF therapy or empiric standard of care HF therapy. They will be followed for a minimum of 6 months, after a three month blanking period for optimization of rhythm and HF therapies. This study is a sequential randomized, open label, active-controlled trial, designed to compare a composite clinical outcomes endpoint of heart failure hospitalization and/or cardiovascular mortality among these patients randomized to each of these treatment strategies. This endpoint will be employed in both pilot trial phases to assess event rates, as well as safety endpoints. This data will form the basis of a larger pivotal trial