Reversal of Atrial Substrate to Prevent Atrial Fibrillation Cohort Study

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major health problem, with a prevalence of 0.4-1% of the population. It results in high healthcare costs and significant morbidity, especially for patients with severe symptoms. The RASTA-AF randomized control trial (RCT) is designed to answer the following question: does vigorous treatment of AF with aggressive risk factor management plus catheter ablation reduce AF-related outcomes as compared to catheter ablation plus usual care in patients with symptomatic AF and risk factors that promote AF.

This study is a multicenter, prospective cohort study that will enrol patients who decline participation in the RASTA-AF RCT but agree to be followed in a registry. The objective of RASTA-Cohort is to determine whether patients who decline participation in the RASTA-AF RCT have different clinical characteristics and quality of life than patients who accept participation in the study, and whether they suffer from worse AF-related outcomes than patients in the RCT.