Pulmonary vein isolation alone or in combination with substrate modulation after electrical cardioversion failure in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation: The PACIFIC trial: Study design

International audiencePulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is effective at treating 50% of unselected patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). Alternatively, PVI combined with a new ablation strategy entitled the Marshall-PLAN ensures a 78% 1-year sinus rhythm (SR) maintenance rate in the same population. However, a substantial subset of patients could undergo the Marshall-PLAN unnecessarily. It is therefore essential to identify those patients who can be treated with PVI alone versus those who may truly benefit from the Marshall-PLAN before ablation is performed. In this context, we hypothesized that electrical cardioversion (EC) could help to select the most appropriate strategy for each patient