3.2 Description of included studies
Five studies from 2005-2020 involving 985 patients were included (495
patients and 490 patients underwent ablation and medication as initial
therapy, respectively) [10-12, 14, 15]. The main inclusion criterion
was symptomatic pAF without previous treatment with class I or class III
AADs. Exclusion criteria are reported in detail in Table 1. The most
commonly used first-line AADs were flecainide, propafenone, and sotalol,
with amiodarone a second-line AAD in all studies. AT recurrences were
recorded after a blanking period of 60-90 days and up to 1-2 years via
ambulatory cardiac monitoring. Other study characteristics of the
included studies are shown in table 1.