Table 3.

Plasma inflammatory marker levels and their changes in serial blood samples in the three groups of patients with different timing of the first atrial fibrillation recurrence after electrical cardioversion. Plasma blood samples were obtained 24 h before (I), 24 h after (II), and 7 days (III) after successful cardioversion

Cytokine	Group 1 AF between 1 week and 30 day after CV (n=28)	Group 2 AF between 1 week day and 1 year after (n=18)	Group 3 AF between 31 1 year after CV CV (n=5)	P
CRP, mg/L	2.1±1.6 (0.7–7)	2.5±2 (0.7–8)	2.6±1.6 (0.8–5)	0.7
NPT I, nmol/L	18.5±7 (6–38)	20.7±8 (9–34)	14±1 (13–16)	0.22
NPT II, nmol/L	18.4±7 (8–33)	18.5±8 (10–35)	11.8±2 (9–15)	0.09
NPT III, nmol/L	20.4±9 (6–37)	21±8 (8–35)	13.8±2 (11–15)	0.23
IL-6 I, pg/mL	4.2±5 (0.3–19)	2.1±2 (0.4–8)	7.3±7 (1.3–15)	0.17
IL-6 II, pg/mL	5.1±5 (0.4–20)	5.4±3 (0.4–10)	1±0.5 (0.7–1.5)	0.15
IL-6 III, pg/mL	2±1.8 (0.3–5)	3.1±3 (0.2–12)	1.6±1.5 (0.7–3.3)	0.9

AF - atrial fibrillation; CRP-C - reactive protein (at baseline); CV - electrical cardioversion; IL-6 - interleukin 6; NPT - neopterin.

Kruskal–Wallis test or the one-way ANOVA was used to compare the multiple groups depending on whether data fit the assumptions of normality