Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is a well-established interventional treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation. Previous studies have shown that catheter-based treatments such as PVI may lead to cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia related to PVI may present with new neurological deficits but may also occur as silent brain infarction. However, even silent brain infarctions are associated with an increased risk of incident dementia and clinically overt new strokes. To date, it remains unclear which procedural steps of PVI are associated with an increased risk of cerebral ischemia.~Cerebral blood flow and microembolic signals can be detected by using transcranial doppler ultrasound (TCD). TCD has been used in clinical routine for many years and is known to be safe in stroke patients. By performing continuous TCD monitoring for microembolic signals during PVI, the aim of this study is therefore to identify, which procedural steps are associated with the occurence of cerebral microemboli. In addition, the investigators aim to compare the frequency of cerebral microemboli in different pulmonary vein isolation techniques that are applied in clinical routine as well as different periprocedural anticoagulation regimes.
The goal of the TCD-CA study is to determine the frequency of cerebral embolization during pulmonary vein isolation using continuous transcranial Doppler examination. Different parts of the procedure, different ablation techniques and periprocedural anticoagulation regimes will be compared.