A patient’s sex should not influence the choice of whether or not to treat atrial fibrillation (AF) with ablation, researchers say in the wake of new data. 

Concerns that women having ablation were at more risk of adverse events than men should be allayed by the findings of a post hoc analysis showing no difference in risk between the sexes, they said.

The US team used data from the CABANA trial, in which more than 2200 patients aged over 65 with AF were randomised to either catheter ablation with pulmonary vein isolation or medical therapy with rate/rhythm controlling drugs, to see whether outcomes differed by sex.

The previously-reported primary trial outcome of a composite of death, disabling stroke, serious bleeding or cardiac arrest, had not differed significantly between patients allocated to ablation or drug therapy, they noted, and this was also the case in their all-male and all-female subgroup analyses.