Acute and long-term outcomes of pulmonary vein isolation and left atrial substrate modification for non-paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: a non-randomized trial.

"Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (Available at https://cdt.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/cdt-23-273/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare."

"Funding: This work was supported by the Chengdu High-level Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project ( No. 2021YJ0215 ) and the Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Program ( No. 2020YJ0483 ). The funding sources had no role in the study design; the collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data; the writing of the report; nor the decision to submit the article for publication."

"This study was a prospective, single-center, non-randomized controlled trial conducted in the AF Center of the Third People’s Hospital of Chengdu, China. As an exploratory study for preceding a randomized controlled trial, in order to further ensure the ethics of the trial, the principle of the different order of ablation of the admitted patients was mainly based on the wishes of the patients in the preoperative interview. In the process of conversation, all the doctors involved in this study did not introduce too much about the advantages and disadvantages of different ablation sequences, and refused to implement purposeful induction for patients to ensure the randomness of patients’ independent choice. This study was derived from a larger trial on the individualized localization method of the AF maintenance substrate (2020YJ0483). This study was registered as a clinical trial (ChiCTR-OIN-17013021). This study was approved by the ethics review board of the Third People’s Hospital of Chengdu (No. 2023-S-38) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013) and institutional guidelines. All patients signed an informed consent form for radiofrequency ablation."