{"id":5398,"date":"2026-02-20T11:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/?p=5398"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:40:19","slug":"cvja-2025-091","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2025-091\/","title":{"rendered":"Atrial fibrillation ablation in patients with mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads. Prospective single-centre study including 33 patients on anticoagulants"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div id=\"article\">                                                                                                                        \r\n        <div id=\"title-container\">                                                                                                    \r\n        <div id=\"authors-title\">                                                                                                            \r\n        <!--Aurthors under Title-->                                                                                                            \r\n            \r\nGrigory A. Gromyko, Dmitry U. Shchekochikhin, Afsoon Fayez, Alexandr N. Lischuk\r\n<\/div>        \r\n<\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n            <div id=\"copyright\">\r\n        <strong>Copyright:<\/strong> Clinics Cardive Publishing (Pty) Ltd. publisher\r\n        of Cardiovascular Journal of Africa.<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>                                                                                                                                \r\n        <div id=\"article-abstract\">                                                                                                            \r\n            <div id=\"abstract-title\">                                                                                                        \r\n                    Abstract                                                                                                                \r\n                <\/div>                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                \r\n            <div id=\"abstract-content\">                                                                                                        \r\n            <!--Content of Abstract Article-->                                                                                                \r\n            <!--<strong>\"Abstract titles\":<\/strong>-->                                                                                        \r\n            <!--<br\/> at the end of each section!!-->                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                     \r\n\r\n        <strong>Introduction:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nMobile thrombus on pacemaker leads is a common phenomenon seen during intracardiac echocardiography in patients undergoing catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF).\r\n<br \/>   \r\n\r\n        <strong>Purpose:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nThe purpose of our study is to assess the safety of RF ablation of atrial fibrillation in patients with mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads.\r\n<br \/>\r\n\r\n        <strong>Methods:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nA total of 33 patients with AF and previously implanted cardiac pacemakers who had undergone radiofrequency pulmonary vein isolation since January 1st, 2015, were studied. All patients were anticoagulated with vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) or novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs), at least three weeks before the procedure. All procedures were guided by intracardiac echocardiography. Patients were divided into two groups: group 1 (15 patients) with mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads and group 2 (18 patients) without mobile thrombus on device leads.\r\n<br \/>\r\n                \r\n                <strong>Results:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\nThe mean age of the patients was 66.8 \u00b1 7.7 years. The average thrombus length was 8.0 \u00b1 3.3 mm. There were no differences in preprocedural anticoagulation with VKA or NOAC between groups (13% versus 17% for VKA, P = 1.0). Paroxysmal AF was less prevalent in the thrombus group (40% versus 83%, P = 0.01). There were no complications of AF ablation or arrhythmia recurrence procedures in either group during the 30-day postoperative period.\r\n<br \/>\r\n                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <strong>Conclusions:<\/strong>                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\nRadiofrequency ablation of AF can be safely performed in patients with mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads. Patients with persistent atrial fibrillation have an increased risk of pacemaker lead thrombus formation.\r\n<br \/>    \r\n                                                                                                        \r\n\r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n            <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <div id=\"keywords\">                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n            <strong>Keywords:<\/strong>                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n            <strong>atrial fibrillation, thrombus, ablation techniques<\/strong>                                                                                                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n    <div id=\"publish-info\">                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                \r\n    <strong>Submitted:<\/strong> January 19, 2025; <!--Month day, year; -->    \r\n    <strong>Accepted:<\/strong> October 29, 2025; <!--Month day, year; -->                                                                            \r\n    <strong>Published:<\/strong> February 20, 2026<!--Month day, year; -->                                                                                                                            <br \/>                                                            \r\n        <em>Cardiovasc J Afr 2025; <b>37<\/b>: 43-48<!--pg no. till pg no. \"eg. 4-7\"--><\/em>\r\n        <br \/><strong>Volume 37, Issue 1<\/strong> <br \/>                                                                            \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n                                                                                                                                        \r\n    <div id=\"DOI\">                                                                                                                    \r\n            DOI Citation Reference: dx.doi.org\/10.5830\/CVJA-2025-091<!--DOI number-->                                                                \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n                \r\n                <div id=\"author-affiliation\">                                                                                                \r\n\r\n\r\n<strong>National Medical Research Center for High Medical Technologies \u2013 Central Military Clinical Hospital named after A. A. Vishnevsky\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nGrigory A. Gromyko<br \/> \r\nAlexandr N. Lischuk\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n\r\n<strong>Russian Biotechnological University (Rosbiotech)\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nGrigory A. Gromyko\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n\r\n<strong>I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University)\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nDmitry U. Shchekochikhin\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n\r\n<strong>People\u2019s Friendship University of Russia\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nAfsoon Fayez\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>\r\n                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        \r\n\r\n                [soshsc hide=\"logged\"]\r\n                <strong>You need to be <a style=\"color: #c80c44;\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/member-login\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">logged in to view and download<\/a> the full text PDF version. <a style=\"color: #c80c44;\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/register\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Register for a free account?<\/a><\/strong> <br \/><br \/>[\/soshsc]\r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                <\/div>\r\n    \r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads is a common phenomenon seen during intracardiac echocardiography in patients undergoing catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,109],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardiovascular-topics","category-volume-37-issue-1"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Atrial fibrillation ablation in patients with mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads. Prospective single-centre study including 33 patients on anticoagulants - Cardiovascular Journal of Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads is a common phenomenon seen during intracardiac echocardiography in patients undergoing catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2025-091\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atrial fibrillation ablation in patients with mobile thrombus on pacemaker leads. 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