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. 2025 Aug 21;41(4):e70173. doi: 10.1002/joa3.70173

The Japanese Catheter Ablation Registry (J‐AB): Annual Report in 2023

Kengo Kusano 1,, Koichi Inoue 2, Koshiro Kanaoka 3, Koji Miyamoto 1, Yasuo Okumura 4, Yu‐Ki Iwasaki 5, Kazuhiro Satomi 6, Seiji Takatsuki 7, Kohki Nakamura 8, Seigo Yamashita 9, Masaharu Masuda 10, Yoshitaka Iwanaga 3,11, Shoko Chishaki‐Kawabata 3, Teiichi Yamane 12, Wataru Shimizu 13, Hiroshi Tada 14; J‐AB registry investigators
PMCID: PMC12371196  PMID: 40861251

ABSTRACT

The Japanese Catheter Ablation (J‐AB) registry, started in August 2017, is a voluntary, nationwide, multicenter, prospective, observational registry performed by the Japanese Heart Rhythm Society (JHRS) in collaboration with the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center. From January 2022, the data registration system was changed from the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) system to the Fountayn system. The purpose of this registry is to collect the details of target arrhythmias, the ablation procedures, including the type of target arrhythmias, outcomes, and acute complications in real‐world settings. During the year of 2023, we have collected a total of 102 584 procedures (mean age of 66.9 years and 65.2% male) from 549 participant hospitals. Detailed data were shown in figures and tables.

Keywords: catheter ablation, complication, J‐AB, nationwide registry


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Catheter ablation has become an established therapy for the management of various cardiac arrhythmias, and the procedure number has been dramatically increasing. However, little is known about the details of target arrhythmias, the ablation procedures, including the type of target arrhythmias, outcomes, and acute complications in real‐world settings.

There are several preceding registries of catheter ablation, but the majority of which collected data from selected centers and/or selected arrhythmia and/or specified months to reveal the current status of ablations. Accordingly, we conducted a nationwide, multicenter, prospective, observational registry in Japan, named the Japanese Catheter Ablation (J‐AB) registry, aiming to register all catheter ablation cases in Japan [1]. This registry has been performed by the Japanese Heart Rhythm Society (JHRS) in collaboration with the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center using initially the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) system. From January 2022, the data registration system was changed from REDCap to the Fountayn system, renamed J‐AB 2022, and the research protocol was approved by the central ethics review board of the JHRS (No. 2021001, approved at December 16, 2021), and participation is permitted with the approval of the director of each data‐providing institution. All participants were provided informed consent either by a written paper or by an opt‐out fashion and could withdraw their consent at any time. This study was also registered in the UMIN Clinical Trial Registry (UMIN 000028288) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03729232). This J‐AB registry started in August 2017; since then, the number of participating hospitals has increased to over 500 at the end of 2022. Annual data during the years of 2018 to 2022 has been already reported [2, 3, 4, 5, 6], and now we report here the annual report of the results during the year of 2023. Figure 1 showed that the cumulative procedures during the year of 2023. Figure 2 showed that the number and rate of the target arrhythmias. AF ablation was the leading procedure (75.0% of all ablation procedures) in 2023, and the percentage of patients over 75 years of age was 33.1% in 2023. Patient characteristics, acute outcomes, and acute complications of all and AF procedures were shown in Tables 1, 2, 3, respectively.

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

Cumulative number of registered hospitals (red line) and the patients (blue bars) during the year of 2022.

FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 2

The number and rate of the target arrhythmias in the J‐AB 2022 (90 042 procedures; A) and 2021 (89 609 procedures; B). AF, atrial fibrillation; AFL, atrial flutter; AT, atrial tachycardia; AVNRT, atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia; AVRT, atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia; IVC, inferior vena cava; PVC, premature ventricular contraction; TV, tricuspid valve; VT, ventricular tachycardia.

TABLE 1.

Patient characteristics.

All procedures Atrial fibrillation (AF) Atrial flutter (AFL)/atrial tachycardia (AT) Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia Atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia Premature ventricular contraction Ventricular tachycardia (VT)
All AF Paroxysmal AF (PAF) Non‐PAF All AFL/AT IVC‐TV isthmus dependent AFL Uncommon AFL macro AT Focal AT Idiopathic VT VT due to ischemic cardiomyopathy VT due to nonischemic cardiomyopathy
N 1,02,584 78,196 42,881 35,314 15,798 10,086 4039 3054 7254 2981 4849 792 525 523
Age, mean ± SD 66.9±13.1 68.6±10.7 68.5±11.1 68.7±10.2 69.5±12.3 69.5±11.7 71.5±11.2 67.2±14.9 59.4±16.7 48.2±20.7 58.6±16.5 54.9±19.5 69.1±9.6 64.5±12.6
Gender, male 66,876 (65.2) 52,894 (67.6) 27,194 (63.4) 25,700 (72.8) 10,563 (66.9) 7606 (75.4) 2343 (58.0) 1393 (45.6) 3015 (41.6) 1899 (63.7) 2703 (55.7) 531 (67.0) 487 (92.8) 436 (83.4)
Heart diseases
IHD
No 92,069 (89.7) 70,287 (89.9) 38,480 (89.7) 31,806 (90.1) 13,849 (87.7) 8748 (86.7) 3513 (87.0) 2793 (91.5) 6921 (95.4) 2863 (96.0) 4359 (89.9) 703 (88.8) 478 (91.4)
Yes 9175 (8.9) 6888 (8.8) 3828 (8.9) 3060 (8.7) 1799 (11.4) 1258 (12.5) 472 (11.7) 236 (7.7) 249 (3.4) 77 (2.6) 439 (9.1) 83 (10.5) 39 (7.5)
Unknown 1340 (1.3) 1021 (1.3) 573 (1.3) 448 (1.3) 150 (0.9) 80 (0.8) 54 (1.3) 25 (0.8) 84 (1.2) 41 (1.4) 51 (1.1) 6 (0.8) 6 (1.1)
Cardiomyopathy
No 94,140 (91.8) 71,846 (91.9) 40,451 (94.3) 31,394 (88.9) 14,222 (90.0) 9099 (90.2) 3499 (86.6) 2832 (92.7) 7084 (97.7) 2902 (97.3) 4424 (91.2) 706 (89.1) 483 (92.0)
Yes 7130 (7.0) 5341 (6.8) 1867 (4.4) 3474 (9.8) 1442 (9.1) 917 (9.1) 481 (11.9) 206 (6.7) 98 (1.4) 46 (1.5) 370 (7.6) 71 (9.0) 28 (5.3)
Unknown 1314 (1.3) 1009 (1.3) 563 (1.3) 446 (1.3) 134 (0.8) 70 (0.7) 59 (1.5) 16 (0.5) 72 (1.0) 33 (1.1) 55 (1.1) 15 (1.9) 14 (2.7)
Valve disease
No 94,630 (92.2) 72,115 (92.2) 40,259 (93.9) 31,856 (90.2) 13,827 (87.5) 8944 (88.7) 3214 (79.6) 2727 (89.3) 7039 (97.0) 2904 (97.4) 4621 (95.3) 757 (95.6) 467 (89.0) 444 (84.9)
Yes 6841 (6.7) 5201 (6.7) 2125 (5.0) 3075 (8.7) 1878 (11.9) 1097 (10.9) 784 (19.4) 316 (10.3) 150 (2.1) 47 (1.6) 188 (3.9) 32 (4.0) 49 (9.3) 74 (14.1)
Unknown 1113 (1.1) 880 (1.1) 497 (1.2) 383 (1.1) 93 (0.6) 45 (0.4) 41 (1.0) 11 (0.4) 65 (0.9) 30 (1.0) 40 (0.8) 3 (0.4) 9 (1.7) 5 (1.0)
CHD
No 100,113 (97.6) 76,569 (97.9) 41,993 (97.9) 34,575 (97.9) 15,119 (95.7) 9704 (96.2) 3732 (92.4) 2939 (96.2) 7148 (98.5) 2912 (97.7) 4768 (98.3) 774 (97.7) 513 (97.7) 514 (98.3)
Yes 1,352 (1.3) 736 (0.9) 388 (0.9) 348 (1.0) 585 (3.7) 338 (3.4) 263 (6.5) 105 (3.4) 45 (0.6) 40 (1.3) 41 (0.8) 14 (1.8) 4 (0.8) 5 (1.0)
Unknown 1,119 (1.1) 891 (1.1) 500 (1.2) 391 (1.1) 94 (0.6) 44 (0.4) 44 (1.1) 10 (0.3) 61 (0.8) 29 (1.0) 40 (0.8) 4 (0.5) 8 (1.5) 4 (0.8)

Abbreviations: CHD, congenital heart disease; IHD, ischemic heart disease; SD, standard deviation.

TABLE 2.

Acute outcomes.

2023 n (%) 2022 n (%) 2023–2022, % change
Pulmonary vein isolation of atrial fibrillation n = 77,906 Pulmonary vein isolation of atrial fibrillation n = 67,967
Ablation system Ablation system
RF alone 56,119 (72.0%) RF alone 49,416 (72.7%) −0.7
Ballon alone (Cryo, hot, laser) 15,525 (19.9%) Ballon alone (Cryo, hot, laser) 13,399 (19.7%) +0.2
RF + Ballon combination 6104 (7.8%) RF + Ballon combination 5083 (7.5%) +0.3
Others 158 (0.2%) Others 69 (0.1%) +0.1
Patient with a first session (n = 55,170) n = 62,856 Patient with a first session n = 55,170
Success 62,499 (99.4%) Success 54,960 (99.6%) −0.2
Unsuccess 357 (0.6%) Unsuccess 210 (0.4%) +0.2
Unknown or others 0 (0.0%) Unknown 0 (0.0%) 0.0
Patient with second session n = 12,106 Patient with second session n = 10,325
Success 8478 (70.0%) Success 7517 (72.8%) −2.8
Unsuccess 29 (0.2%) Unsuccess 31 (0.3%) −0.1
Already isolated 3599 (29.7%) Already isolated 2777 (26.9%) +2.8
Patient with ≥ third session n = 2927 Patient with ≥ third session n = 2445
Success 1120 (38.3%) Success 1137 (46.5%) −8.2
Unsuccess 9 (0.3%) Unsuccess 6 (0.2%) +0.1
Already isolated 1798 (61.4%) Already isolated 1302 (53.3%) +8.1
IVC‐TV isthmus dependent atrial flutter n = 10,086 IV‐TV isthmus dependent atrial flutter (n = 9605) n = 9292
Success 10,037 (99.5%) Success 9223 (99.3%) +0.2
Unsuccess 49 (0.5%) Unsuccess 69 (0.7%) −0.2
Uncommon atrial flutter/atrial tachycardia n = 4039 Uncommon atrial flutter/atrial tachycardia (n = 3957) n = 3884
Complete success 3517 (87.1%) Complete success 3322 (85.5%) +1.6
Partial success 382 (9.5%) Partial success 407 (10.5%) −1.0
Unsuccess 103 (2.6%) Unsuccess 123 (3.2%) −0.6
Unknown or others 37 (0.9%) Unknown 32 (0.8%) +0.1
Focal atrial tachycardia n = 3054 Focal atrial tachycardia (n = 2894) n = 2797
Complete success 2601 (85.2%) Complete success 2373 (84.8%) +0.4
Partial success 322 (10.5%) Partial success 298 (10.7%) −0.2
Unsuccess 89 (2.9%) Unsuccess 89 (3.2%) −0.3
Unknown or others 42 (1.4%) Unknown 37 (1.3%) +0.1
Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia by slow‐fast n = 6248 Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia by slow‐fast (n = 5534) n = 5499
Complete success 6108 (97.8%) Complete success 5377 (97.8%) 0.0
Partial success 108 (1.7%) Partial success 77 (1.4%) +0.3
Unsuccess 16 (0.3%) Unsuccess 28 (0.5%) −0.2
Unknown or others 16 (0.3%) Unknown 17 (0.3%) 0.0
Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia by fast‐slow n = 702 Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia by fast‐slow (n = 573) n = 607
Complete success 674 (96.0%) Complete success 587 (96.7%) −0.7
Partial success 19 (2.7%) Partial success 12 (2.0%) +0.7
Unsuccess 3 (0.4%) Unsuccess 6 (1.0%) −0.6
Unknown or others 6 (0.9%) Unknown 2 (0.3%) +0.6
Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia by slow‐slow n = 476 Atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia by slow‐slow (n = 356) n = 426
Complete success 448 (94.1%) Complete success 402 (94.4%) −0.3
Partial success 18 (3.8%) Partial success 19 (4.5%) −0.7
Unsuccess 5 (1.1%) Unsuccess 3 (0.7%) +0.4
Unknown or others 5 (1.1%) Unknown 2 (0.5%) +0.6
Atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia by kent n = 2981 Atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia by kent (n = 2670) n = 2584
Complete success 2819 (96.5%) Complete success 2461 (96.9%) −0.4
Unsuccess 71 (2.4%) Unsuccess 51 (2.0%) +0.4
Unknown or others 31 (1.1%) Unknown 28 (1.1%) 0.0
Premature ventricular contraction n = 4849 Premature ventricular contraction (n = 4,314) n = 4167
Complete success 3763 (77.6%) Complete success 3215 (77.2%) +0.4
Partial success 837 (17.3%) Partial success 718 (17.2%) +0.1
Unsuccess 198 (4.1%) Unsuccess 198 (4.8%) −0.7
Unknown or others 51 (1.1%) Unknown 36 (0.9%) +0.2
Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia n = 792 Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (n = 778) n = 776
Complete success 643 (81.2%) Complete success 598 (77.1%) +4.1
Partial success 99 (12.5%) Partial success 132 (17.0%) −4.5
Unsuccess 32 (4.0%) Unsuccess 27 (3.5%) +0.5
Unknown or others 18 (2.3%) Unknown 19 (2.4%) −0.1
Ventricular tachycardia due to ischemic cardiomyopathy n = 525 Ventricular tachycardia due to ischemic cardiomyopathy (n = 459) n = 445
Complete success 384 (73.1%) Complete success 328 (73.7%) −0.6
Partial success 110 (21.0%) Partial success 91 (20.4%) +0.6
Unsuccess 16 (3.0%) Unsuccess 11 (2.5%) +0.5
Unknown or others 15 (2.9%) Unknown 15 (3.4%) −0.5
Ventricular tachycardia due to nonischemic cariomyopathy n = 523 Ventricular tachycardia due to nonischemic cariomyopathy (n = 570) 545
Complete success 312 (59.7%) Complete success 314 (57.6%) +2.1
Partial success 165 (31.5%) Partial success 183 (33.6%) −2.1
Unsuccess 30 (5.7%) Unsuccess 26 (4.8%) +0.9
Unknown or others 16 (3.1%) Unknown 22 (4.0%) −0.9

Abbreviations: IVC, inferior vena cava; RF, radiofrequency ablation; TV, tricuspid valve.

TABLE 3.

Acute complications.

N 2023 2022 2023–2022, % change
All patient AF All patient AF All patient AF
1,02,584 78,196 90,042 68,378
Complications during hospitalization 2101 (2.05%) 1688 (2.16%) 2046 (2.27%) 1660 (2.43%) −0.22% −0.27%
Major bleeding (BARC ≧ 2) 784 (0.76%) 576 (0.74%) 772 (0.86%) 592 (0.87%) −0.1% −0.13%
Cardiac tamponade 483 (0.47%) 335 (0.43%) 496 (0.55%) 356 (0.52%) −0.08% −0.09%
Embolism 129 (0.13%) 106 (0.14%) 127 (0.14%) 106 (0.16%) −0.01% −0.02%
Phrenic nerve paralysis 326 (0.32%) 320 (0.41%) 293 (0.33%) 285 (0.42%) −0.01% −0.01%
Esophagus 110 (0.11%) 110 (0.14%) 119 (0.13%) 119 (0.17%) −0.02% −0.03%
Gastric hypomotility 93 (0.09%) 93 (0.12%) 114 (0.13%) 114 (0.17%) −0.04% −0.05%
Pericardities 78 (0.08%) 64 (0.08%) 63 (0.07%) 56 (0.08%) 0.01% 0.00%
Sick sinus syndrome 138 (0.13%) 113 (0.14%) 125 (0.14%) 103 (0.15%) −0.01% −0.01%
Atrioventricular block 66 (0.06%) 22 (0.03%) 74 (0.08%) 20 (0.03%) −0.02% 0.00%
Death during hospitalization 121 (0.12%) 50 (0.06%) 118 (0.13%) 43 (0.06%) −0.01% 0.00%
Cardiac death 66 (0.06%) 19 (0.02%) 69 (0.08%) 22 (0.03%) −0.02% −0.01%
Related to ablation therapy 7 (0.007%) 3 (0.004%) 2 (0.002%) 1 (0.001%) 0.01% 0.00%
Non cardiac death 55 (0.05%) 31 (0.04%) 49 (0.05%) 21 (0.03%) 0.00% 0.01%
Related to ablation therapy 3 (0.003%) 3 (0.004%) 2 (0.002%) 2 (0.003%) 0.00% 0.00%

Ethics Statement

This study was approved by the central ethics review board of the Japanese Heart Rhythm Society (No. 2021001, approved at December 16, 2021).

Conflicts of Interest

Kengo Kusano: Speaker honoraria from Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd., and Medtronic Japan, and research grants from Medtronic Japan, Abbott, Boston Scientific Japan, Biotronik Japan, GE Precision Healthcare LLC, Johnson & Johnson KK, and JSR. Koichi Inoue: Speaker honoraria from Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd., Bristol Myers Squibb, Bayer Yakuhin, Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson KK, Medtronic Japan, and Boston Scientific Japan. Koji Miyamoto received funding/grants from Medtronic, Biosense Webster, Abbott, and Boston Scientific, honoraria/speakers' bureaus from Medtronic, Biosense Webster, Abbott, and Boston Scientific, and consultancies from Medtronic, Abbott, and Boston Scientific outside the submitted work and is affiliated with a department endowed by Medtronic outside the submitted work. Yasuo Okumura has received research funding from Medtronic Japan Co. Ltd., MicroPort CRM Japan, and Bayer Healthcare; and has accepted remuneration from AstraZeneca K.K. and Johnson & Johnson K.K. He is affiliated with endowed departments supported by Abbott, Boston Scientific Japan K.K., Medtronic Japan Co. Ltd., Japan Lifeline Co. Ltd., and Biotronik Japan. Kazuhiro Satomi received research funding irrelevant to this study from Abbott, Boston Scientific Japan, Biotronik Japan, and lecture fees from Medtronic Japan, Japan Lifeline. Seiji Takatsuki belongs to the Advanced Cardiac Arrhythmia Therapeutics Endowed Research Course, which is supported by Medtronic Japan, Japan Lifeline, Boston Scientific Japan, Abbott Japan, and Biotronik Japan. He has received lecture fees from Medtronic Japan, Japan Lifeline, Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd., Boston Scientific Japan, and Abbott. Masaharu Masuda received research funding irrelevant to this study from Johnson and Johnson and lecture fees from Medtronic Japan, Daiichi‐Sankyo, and Boston Scientific Japan. Teiichi Yamane: Speaker honoraria from Medtronic Japan and BEG company, and research grants from Japan Lifeline. Wataru Shimizu: Speaker honoraria from Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd., Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson KK, Boston Scientific Japan, Japan Lifeline, Medtronic Japan, and Abbott. Dr. Hiroshi Tada received honoraria for lectures or speakers bureaus from Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd.; Novartis Pharma K.K.; Medtronic Japan Co. Ltd.; BIOTRONIK Japan Inc.; Bristol Myers Squibb; Boston Scientific Japan K.K. He received research grants (Investigator‐initiated study unrelated to the manuscript topic) from Abbott Medical Japan LLC; Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd.; Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co. Ltd.; Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.; Eli Lilly Japan K.K.; Marubun Tsusyo K.K. Koshiro Kanaoka, Yu‐Ki Iwasaki, Kohki Nakamura, Yoshitaka Iwanaga, Shoko Chishaki‐Kawabata declare no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the contributions of all the investigators and Yoko Sumida for the data management in the J‐AB and J‐AB 2022 registry.

Kusano K., Inoue K., Kanaoka K., et al., “The Japanese Catheter Ablation Registry (J‐AB): Annual Report in 2023,” Journal of Arrhythmia 41, no. 4 (2025): e70173, 10.1002/joa3.70173.

Funding: This study was supported by Japanese Heart Rhythm Society.

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