Page 38 - Read Online

Page 4 of 20 Pardo et al. Vessel Plus 2022;6:36 https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1209.2021.120

Qualitative content analysis was used to classify: (1) part I - all professional society-based POAF definitions;
and (2) part II - all professional society-based POAF guideline recommendations; whenever possible, sub-
component categories were developed to identify emerging themes.

For part I, the published POAF definitions from the 71 key reference manuscripts were compared to the
professional society based POAF definitional components; these include the six characteristics associated
with a POAF definition listed below (see Tables 1-3).

1. POAF electrocardiogram findings

2. POAF episode duration

3. Timing of the first POAF observation

4. POAF-related symptoms

5. General POAF definitions

(1) New-onset

(2) Early-onset

(3) Late-onset

(4) Silent

(5) Recurrent

(6) Treatment

6. Inclusivity

Evaluating these six POAF definitional characteristics, the ten professional societies’ POAF definitions were
carefully analyzed (see Table 4).

For these same professional societies, their cardiac interventional guidelines were evaluated see [Table 4]
according to the following three categories: POAF risk assessments, POAF prevention guidelines, and
POAF management guidelines (see Tables 5-7).

RESULTS
Part I - POAF definitional components
Of the ten professional societies analyzed 50% (n = 5) did not define POAF. Table 1 presents the results of
POAF definition characteristics by society. Not unexpectedly, of the 4 CT societies included 75% (n = 3)
defined POAF in contrast to only 33% of non-CT societies.