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World J Cardiol. Apr 26, 2016; 8(4): 310-316
Published online Apr 26, 2016. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v8.i4.310
Collateral findings during computed tomography scan for atrial fibrillation ablation: Let’s take a look around
Francesco Perna, Michela Casella, Maria Lucia Narducci, Antonio Dello Russo, Gianluigi Bencardino, Gianluca Pontone, Gemma Pelargonio, Daniele Andreini, Nicola Vitulano, Francesca Pizzamiglio, Edoardo Conte, Filippo Crea, Claudio Tondo
Francesco Perna, Maria Lucia Narducci, Gianluigi Bencardino, Gemma Pelargonio, Nicola Vitulano, Filippo Crea, Cardiac Arrhythmia Unit, Agostino Gemelli University Hospital, 00168 Rome, Italy
Michela Casella, Antonio Dello Russo, Gianluca Pontone, Daniele Andreini, Francesca Pizzamiglio, Edoardo Conte, Claudio Tondo, Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Centre, Centro Cardiologico Monzino, IRCCS, 20138 Milan, Italy
Author contributions: Perna F and Casella M wrote the paper; Narducci ML, Dello Russo A, Bencardino G, Pontone G, Pelargonio G and Andreini D revised the paper; Vitulano N, Pizzamiglio F and Conte E provided the images and elaborated critical concepts of the paper; Crea F and Tondo C provided the final revision and approval of the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Francesco Perna, MD, PhD, Cardiac Arrhythmia Unit, Agostino Gemelli University Hospital, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, 00168 Rome, Italy. francperna@gmail.com
Telephone: +39-06-30154187
Received: August 11, 2015
Peer-review started: August 11, 2015
First decision: October 8, 2015
Revised: November 7, 2015
Accepted: January 16, 2016
Article in press: January 19, 2016
Published online: April 26, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Several cardiac computed tomography (CT) scans are performed worldwide in order to better delineate left atrial anatomy before atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. A thorough examination of the entire field of view often discovers cardiac or extra-cardiac collateral findings, which might represent potentially malignant diseases. Early detection of such diseases may guarantee a curative treatment. Our objective is to consolidate the current literature about collateral findings detected at cardiac CT before AF ablation and to highlight the potential implications of systematically reporting and following up such findings.