Statistical analysis
The normality of continuous data was assessed using the Shapiro–Wilk
test. Categorical variables were reported as frequency (%) while
continuous variables as mean ± Standard Deviation (SD). The Chi-square
or Fisher’s exact test was used to compare categorical variables, as
appropriate. Student’s t test or the Mann–Whitney U test was used to
compare continuous variables, as appropriate. Receiver operator
characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to find the optimal cut-off
values for predicting arrhythmia recurrence. Propensity score (PS)
matching analysis was performed to reduce the impact of potential
confounding factors. PSs were derived to match patients at a 1:1 ratio.
Patients were matched according to age, sex, LA diameter, and AF type.
Analysis was performed using SPSS software version 23.0 (IBM Corp.,
Armonk, NY, USA) and XLSTAT statistical software for excel. The
statistical significance was set at a two-tailed P-value of ≤ 0.05.