Heart-type fatty acid binding protein is an early marker of myocardial damage after radiofrequency catheter ablation

OBJECTIVES: Radiofrequency (RF) ablation of arrhythmias induces myocardial damage and release of biomarkers. This study aimed to assess the kinetics of heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (h-FABP), a cytosolic protein released after myocardial injury incurred by both atrial and ventricular RF ablation, compared to other markers of myocardial injury. DESIGN AND METHODS: h-FABP, cTnI, CK-MB(mass) and myoglobin were evaluated in 30 patients with atrial or ventricular tachyarrhythmias before, immediately after and at 3, 6 and 24h after the procedure. RESULTS: h-FABP increased immediately after the procedure in all subjects (6.6 ± 1.2 ¼g/L vs 2.7 ± 0.3, p0.001) but increased significantly only in ventricular ablations. The peak of h-FABP significantly correlates with the values of time for mean power of RF application in both the entire patient cohort and in ventricular ablations. CONCLUSIONS: h-FABP may be an early parameter for monitoring RF-induced lesions and the site of ablation was relevant for biomarker increase.